What are the risk factors for non-coronary heart disease?
There are many processes that can lead to heart disease not associated with coronary disease or atherosclerosis, just as the same processes can cause disease in other organs. For example, trauma is such a cause. If we’re in an auto accident, and we run our chest up against the steering wheel, the trauma of that; the actual physical force against the hardened blood vessels as they sort of swing forward and hit our chest wall, can actually damage the heart. It can particularly damage the great vessels. People recognise, for example, that Princess Diana died because blood vessels were torn in her chest when she was in an auto accident. This is a very common cause of death in people who die at the scene in an auto accident. Likewise, the process of infection can affect the heart. For example, intravenous drug users will often get an infection of the bloodstream. That infection can actually affect the valves of the heart, and can destroy the tissue of those valves, so that the valves leak,
