"Terrestrial Altitude and Coronary Heart Disease"
Mike Gainor 

Graduate Student

California State University, Los Angeles

ABSTRACT:
Cardiovascular disease is, and has been, the leading cause of mortality in the United States since 1900. While the incidence rate has decreased somewhat since the 1950's and 1960's, and with the development of new medical treatments such as cholesterol lowering drugs and advanced surgical procedures like, diseases of the heart were still the causes of 29.4 percent of all mortality in this country in 2001. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the ranking of 50 states and the District of Columbia on heart disease incidence per
100,000 people over age 35. It was interesting to note that the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming all ranked among the top 10. The expected correlation of heart disease with socioeconomic status does not seem to correspond to this ranking.

This paper will focus on the issue of human health as it relates to the geography of the physical landscape, in particular, the response of the cardiovascular system to increased terrestrial altitude. To seek explanations for this unanticipated spatial distribution of cardiovascular disease incidence, this paper seeks to define the extent to which this correlation between terrestrial elevation and coronary artery disease exists in higher altitude human settlements in the United States and around the world. The paper will also explore possible explanations for this phenomenon, using medical and physiological literature on the subject of cardiovascular disease, with particular emphasis on the effects of decreased oxygen levels and barometric pressure on human metabolism.

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