Your heart has the monumental task of pumping blood throughout your entire body. Moving your blood through the circulatory system provides oxygen and nutrients in your blood to the various organs in your body. As your heart works to provide this rich oxygen and the nutrients, it is also working to cleanse your system of toxins and other harmful waste products. Your body naturally develops these waste products over the course of the day. Only fist sized, the efficiency of your heart is amazing as it pumps over 100,000 times per day cycling over 2,000 gallons of blood through your body. There are a variety of heart disease causes. Here we will break down the top four.

1.) Cardiovascular Disease

Your heart and blood vessels can be affected by atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a build up of the fat plaque in the arteries. Think of it as a rubber hose that is no longer pliable, but rather stiff and no longer flexible. As these fat deposits build up, they put too much pressure on the artery, which restricts the blood flow to your body. This is the most common cause of heart disease. Often blamed on a poor diet, lack of proper exercise, overweight and smoking. If you have any of these conditions it's time to take a serious look at your health and make appropriate changes before it's too late.

2.) Heart Arrhythmia

Abnormal heart rhythm or heart arrhythmia is an irregular heart beat. Typical causes of this are pre-existing conditions when one is born, high blood pressure (hypertension), coronary artery disease, diabetes, smoking, drug or alcohol addiction, stress, valvular heart disease and occasionally an over-the-counter medication. A healthy person will usually not develop this condition unless there is some sort of electrical shock, drug use or infection creating the situation.

3.) Cardiomyopathy

There are three types of cardiomyopathy. The first, and most common type, is called dilated cardiomyopathy. Your heart will enlarge and the blood flow won't be as strong.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an abnormal thickening or growth of your heart. This also affects the main pumping chamber of your heart. As your heart stiffens up, the pumping chamber will shrink and your heart won't be able to move your blood through your body in a timely fashion.

Restrictive cardiomyopathy patients will have more of a stiffening heart that can't expand and fill between the heartbeats. This is the least common type of cardiomyopahy and there is generally no recognizable reason for this to have happened.

4.) Heart Infections

Among the top known contenders for heart disease causes, heart infections can be caused by a myriad of conditions. Bacteria, medication side effects, viruses, parasites and other diseases such as lupus can all cause heart disease. For this reason, it's important to tell your doctor about viruses or illnesses you may have had at your annual check up. It's also important to know which medications you're on and their side effects. Consult your doctor immediately if you have any listed side effects or any other unusual symptoms while on medications.

As you can see, there are many heart disease causes and while some of them mimic others, many of them are not very easy to recognize.