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Heart disease
Heart disease
Every 37 seconds someone dies from heart disease and it is the number one killer for both men and women.
Some risk factors for developing heart disease include high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, and poor lifestyle habits. Although genetics play a role in the disease, people have the ability to change that predisposition. It is noteworthy that non-traditional risk factors of heart diseases include social isolation, resentment, grief, depression, loneliness, hostility, anxiety to mention a few.
Regular exercise and healthy eating (increase intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains; decrease intake of saturated fat diet; limit intake of free sugars; limit salt consumption and ensure that salt is iodized; slowly increase intake of plant based diet) are highly recommended. Lifestyle changes including positive thinking, engaging in healthy relationships and avoiding stress are also helpful in preventing this disease.
Modest and sustained decreases in blood pressure and cholesterol levels reduce the lifetime risk of developing fatal heart and circulatory diseases, such as heart attack and stroke, according to research part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The findings are being presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Paris and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Researchers have found that a long-term reduction of 1 mmol/L low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or ‘bad’ cholesterol, in the blood with a 10 mmHg reduction in blood pressure led to an 80 percent lower lifetime risk of developing heart and circulatory disease.
This combination also reduced the risk of death from these conditions by 67 percent.
The team found that even small reductions can provide health benefits. A decrease of 0.3 mmol/L LDL cholesterol in the blood and 3 mmHg lower blood pressure was associated with a 50 percent lower lifetime risk of heart and circulatory disease.
Scientists have previously found that lowering both blood pressure and the amount of ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood are two ways that can prevent the onset of heart and circulatory disease. However, the risk, which accumulates over time, has not been quantified before.
In this study, Professor Brian Ference and his team studied 438,952 participants in the UK Biobank, who had a total of 24,980 major coronary events – defined as the first occurrence of non-fatal heart attack, ischeamic stroke or death due to coronary heart disease. They used Mendelian randomization, which uses naturally occurring genetic differences to randomly divide the participants into groups, mimicking the effects of running a clinical trial.
People with genes associated with lower blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, and a combination of both were put into different groups and compared against those without these genetic associations. Differences in blood LDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure (the highest level that blood pressure reaches when the heart contracts) and the number of cardiovascular events were compared between groups.
Professor Brian Ference now hopes that these findings can change the healthcare of people at greater risk of developing heart and circulation complications, and improve guidance for those requiring lifestyle changes.
Conclusively, limiting or avoiding meals that can increase the level of bad cholesterol is highly recommended. They include fried foods, red meat, baked foods, sausage, bacon, organ meats (liver, kidney), full-fat dairy products (whole milk, full-fat yoghurt, cheese)
Source:
British Heart Foundation
Reviewer:
James Ives
Washington DC: According to a recent study, anxiety and depression may be the leading predictors of conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, headaches, back pain, stomach ache. Anxiety and depression may have similar effects as long-established risk factors like smoking and obesity, the new research suggests. The study was published in the journal ‘Health Psychology’.
Typically, an annual physical check-up involves a weight check and questions about unhealthy habits like smoking, but this study from UC San Francisco suggests health care providers may be overlooking a critical question- Are you depressed or anxious?
In the study, authors Andrea Niles and Aoife O’Donovan looked at the health data of more than 15,000 older adults over a four-year period.
The authors evaluated health data from a government study of 15,418 retirees, whose average age was 68. Depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed using data from participant interviews. Participants were questioned about their current smoking status, while weight was self-reported or measured during in-person visits. Medical diagnoses and somatic symptoms were reported by participants.
They found that 16 percent (2,225) suffered from high levels of anxiety and depression, 31 percent (4,737) were obese and 14 percent (2,125) were current smokers.
Participants with high levels of anxiety and depression were found to face 65 percent increased odds for a heart condition, 64 percent for stroke, 50 percent for high blood pressure and 87 percent for arthritis, compared to those without anxiety and depression.
“These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese. However, for arthritis, high anxiety and depression seem to confer higher risks than smoking and obesity,” said O’Donovan. Unlike the other conditions investigated, the authors found that high levels of depression and anxiety were not associated with cancer incidence.
“Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer. On top of highlighting that mental health matters for a whole host of medical illnesses, it is important that we promote these null findings. We need to stop attributing cancer diagnoses to histories of stress, depression and anxiety,” added O’Donovan.
Niles and O’Donovan discovered that symptoms such as a headache, stomach upset, back pain and shortness of breath increased exponentially in association with high stress and depression. Odds for a headache, for example, were 161 per cent higher in this group, compared with no increase among the participants who were obese and smokers.
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