TCM Perspective On Cardiovascular Disease
In Chinese medicine, chest pain and heart failure have many different causes. The basic cause of chest pain is obstruction of the circulation of Qi and blood.  Chest pain may be caused by either deficiency or excess patterns.  Deficient patterns include weak circulation of blood with pooling of blood causing stickiness or increased viscosity of the blood (yin deficiency) which causes stagnation of both Qi and blood.  Excess patterns include pathogenic substances which block the circulation of Qi and blood.  Generally heart failure is a complex disorder which combines both excess patterns with underlying deficiency patterns (root and branch).


Western Point of View
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and they include:

1. Rheumatic heart disease – damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria;
2. Congenital heart disease – malformations of heart structure existing at birth;
3. Coronary heart disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle;
4. Cerebrovascular disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain;
5. deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism – blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs.
6. Peripheral arterial disease – disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs;

Heart attacks and strokes are usually acute events and are mainly caused by a blockage that prevents blood from flowing to the heart or brain. The most common reason for this is a build-up of fatty deposits on the inner walls of the blood vessels that supply the heart or brain. Strokes can also be caused by bleeding from a blood vessel in the brain or from blood clots. The cause of heart attacks and strokes are usually the presence of a combination of risk factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidaemia.