Smoking damages your body and good health in numerous ways. In addition to the adverse health effects on the smoker, smoking harms a fetus and the people around a smoker. The cost of smoking in terms of health-care resources and other economic costs cannot be underestimated.

Platelet aggregation is one of the factors that leads to cardiovascular disease and increases risk of heart attack and stroke. Blood thinning drugs such as warfarin and aspirin are used to decrease platelet aggregation for some individuals.

Your heart has 4 chambers: an atrium and a ventricle each on the right and left sides. Between heartbeats, blood flows into the atria. It then passes into the ventricles and is pumped out to the body.

When a heart attack or other condition damages heart muscle, a variety of proteins are released into the bloodstream including cardiac enzymes. Several cardiac enzymes can be measured by blood tests to help diagnose a heart attack. These include creatine kinase (CK) and a subtype of this enzyme called CK-MB.

Your heart has a right side and a left side. Each side consists of an upper chamber called the atrium and a lower chamber known as the ventricle. Blood normally flows from an atrium to a ventricle and then out of the heart.

Amlodipine besylate (Norvasc) is a prescription medication used for the treatment of high blood pressure and coronary artery diseases. It also relieves chest pain, or angina, and restores blood flow in coronary arteries. As with any treatment, you might experience side effects when taking this drug.

C-reactive protein, or CRP, is produced by the liver as part of an inflammatory response. Your physician may order a CRP test if he suspects you have an inflammatory disease such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, or to determine if anti-inflammatory medication is working.

Because so many variables affect your cholesterol, it’s difficult to pinpoint an actual amount of time it takes to lower it. The type of diet you follow, any weight loss or exercise you do, smoking cessation and medications will all affect how quickly you lower your levels.