Welcome to Week 2

In week two, we’ll be exploring some of the diseases that affect the heart and cardiovascular system. We’ll learn about blood clotting processes such as haemostasis and thrombosis and demonstrate how blood clots. You’ll also have the option to have a go at making a thrombus out of jelly.

By the end of this week, you should have a better understanding of the process of atherosclerosis and be able to describe three cardiovascular diseases: angina, heart attacks and strokes.

We’ve already covered some of the statistics for cardiovascular diseases and why they’re so important to each one of us. With one in four of us expected to die of cardiovascular diseases, and many more living with it, it’s a subject that lots of us want to understand better.

In 2023, there were 175,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease in the UK. Of these deaths, approximately 66,000 were from coronary heart disease, 24,000 were from myocardial infarction (heart attacks), 34,000 were from strokes, and 50,000 were from other heart related issues.

Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis, the furring up of the small coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle itself with vital blood and oxygen. This can result in either angina or, perhaps, a heart attack.

Angina is caused by a narrowing of these small coronary arteries. It typically occurs in people over 65 and affects nearly 3% of men and just over 2% of women in the UK. A heart attack is caused when these same small coronary arteries become blocked completely, for example, by a thrombus. Approximately 100,000 heart attacks occur each year in the UK. It’s estimated 1 million men and 400,000 women have survived a heart attack in the UK.¹

Fatal heart attacks typically occur to those over 85 and this results in about 24,000 deaths per year in the UK, or 65 a day, although that rate has halved in England since 2002 due to improvements in treatment.

Stroke

Strokes can also be caused when a thrombus forms, but this time in the blood vessels that supply the brain. Unlike heart attacks, strokes affect men and women equally and there are approximately 1.4 million people in the UK who’ve had a stroke. Although strokes affect men more than women, because women live longer than men and because strokes typically happen later in life, women are actually more likely to die from a stroke. There are 34,000 fatal strokes in the UK each year and this equates to 95 per day.

Why does cardiovascular disease affect men and women differently?

Most people think of cardiovascular disease as something that affects mostly men. However, more women actually die of strokes than men, whilst more men die of coronary heart disease.

Why do you think men and women are affected differently? Share your thoughts in the discussion below. Remember you can ‘Like’ and respond to comments made by other learners.

Course glossary

You may find it helpful to have the glossary open in a separate tab as you work your way through the course.

All statistics from British Heart Foundation unless cited otherwise. British Heart Foundation (2025) Heart & Circulatory Disease Statistics, 2025 Compendium. [Internet]. London: British Heart Foundation; 2025 [cited 2025 Oct 9]. 183p. Available from: https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-statistics/heart-statistics-publications/cardiovascular-disease-statistics-2025

References

1. UK Cardiovascular Disease Factsheet [Internet]. London: British Heart Foundation [2025 Sept]. BHF analysis of national health survey prevalence data and ONS population estimates; [cited 2025 Oct 21]. Available from: https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-uk-factsheet.pdf