The day I was diagnosed with heart disease was one that I'll never forget. I had always heard about it before, and how it drastically changed people's lives; but I never thought it would be me with it.

However, after gaining more knowledge about ways I could control it and not let it control me, I grew as a person.

This is my story.

My name is Passion Smith. I am 30 years old; a rather uncommon age to have many health problems. However, on July 7th, 2018, I started noticing symptoms that I knew I needed to get checked out.

I started feeling really weak and dizzy, and having really bad pain in my arms and legs.

Even though at first I dismissed this, I knew after a while I needed to know if it was anything serious; since the problems seemed to linger for longer than what was considered normal.

So, I went to the doctor. I was told that day that I have coronary artery disease. I had no idea what this was, so I politely asked the doctor to explain.

He told me that Coronary Artery Disease is a condition when too much plaque build up (due to cholesterol) occurs in the arteries, causing them to close up and thus slowing blood flow immensely.

It was hard to believe how important my heart was to my entire body; without it being able to perform its main function, delivering blood throughout my body, it affected everything I did.

The reason why the disease caused such a significant change in my body and the way it worked was due to the very reason for my heart's being, and the fact that it was being hindered.

In order for my body to function, every part of it needs oxygen. How does it get this? From the blood my heart pumps. However, if that blood is slowed (even by a little), the rest of my body suffers.

So, naturally, the next thing I wanted to know was what caused this to happen? Turns out, it was due to my diet. When I consumed fat and cholesterol, a condition called atherosclerosis caused plaque to build up inside of my arteries; as plaque is made up of those substances (fat and cholesterol).

I knew that because of this, I was going to need to make some changes to my diet or it could potentially be very dangerous for me and my daily life.

After learning so much about coronary artery disease, it made me want to change my lifestyle in order to lessen my chances of having problems with the disease.