The breastbone (or breast bone) is the long flat bone located at the centre of the chest to which the ribs and clavicle (shoulder bone) attach. Pain of the breastbone (sternal pain) is a symptom that most of us will experience in life and while it may often be due to a minor cause, breastbone pain may also be indicative of serious medical conditions requiring emergency treatment.
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The heart is a muscular pump that works throughout your life to keep blood circulating through the entire body. It has high demands in terms of oxygen and nutrients and this is supplied to the heart muscle by the coronary arteries. When the coronary arteries are blocked, oxygen and food cannot reach the heart muscle.Without the necessary supply. the heart muscle is suffocated and the dies. This is known as a heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI).
High blood pressure (hypertension) is often termed the ‘silent killer’ because at the outset you may not even know that you have it. With time, hypertension will cause significant cardiovascular damage, affecting the heart and blood vessels and increasing the workload or affect the functioning of the heart. This can present as a number of different conditions collectively called heart disease.
