Question: how many heart diseases have been discovered

Michael Schneider answered on 10 Nov 2015:

It’s easier to answer your question by explaining the various kinds of heart disease, and the variations of the major kinds. Most common is coronary artery disease, the narrowing that is caused by smoking, high blood pressure, high blood fats, and diabetes, and that leads to heart attacks. But, some people have this problem for very special reasons, such as genetic defects in how their body handles the fat we all eat. Another major kind of heart disease affects the heart muscle directly, either making the walls of the heart too thick or too thin. Very often, this is due to mutations in the “motor” proteins that enable the heart to contract and relax, and there are literally dozens of genes that can be the cause. (Is that one disease, or dozens?) The same is true of birth defects that result in misshapen heart valves or holes between the chambers of the heart.