ABSTRACT
Globally, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the number one cause of death and are projected to remain so. An estimated 17 million people died from CVD in 2005, representing 30% of all global deaths. Among these deaths, 7.2 million were due to heart attacks and 5.7 million were due to stroke. If current trends continue, by 2030, an estimated 23.6 million people will die from CVD in the world [138]. In America, an estimated 80 million adults (more than one in three) have one or more types of CVD. In 2005, about 864,000 people died of CVD, accounting for 35.3% of all deaths [8].
