Latest news with #cardiovascular disease
Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Times
Cardiovascular disease — are you in the danger zone?
One of the disadvantages of being an older doctor is that your work starts to bleed into your personal life. I was reminded of this over the weekend when chatting to a friend about his coronary artery bypass surgery. He's one of six of my, mostly, clean-living peers to have had major heart problems in their fifties and sixties. Welcome to sniper's alley: the period in middle age when people (mainly men) get picked off by something they never saw coming. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) isn't the only threat but it's the main one. And it doesn't just shorten lives: most people who have a heart attack or stroke will survive, but many of those who do will be left with some sort of long-term disability. Sniper's alley maims more often than it kills. So just how risky is it? According to the CVD calculator favoured by most British doctors — QRISK3 (see below) — an average healthy non-smoking 55-year-old white man living in my patch (Gloucestershire) has a 1 in 16 chance of having a stroke or heart attack before his 65th birthday. It is 1 in 34 for a similar woman. • Read more expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing Add in a family history of CVD and that increases to 1 in 11 and 1 in 25 respectively. If they also have high cholesterol, the odds rise to 1 in 7 and 1 in 15. And if their blood pressure is high too, the chances are 1 in 5 and 1 in 10. The sniper analogy isn't a pleasant one, but given that the above risk factors are often silent and/or missed, it has some relevance because people don't see what's coming. If you are very overweight, smoke or have diabetes, you should be aware that you are at much higher risk of an early heart attack or stroke. However, you may not know that your father's angina (chest pain on exertion) was significant, and have no idea what your blood pressure or cholesterol levels are because you have never been tested. A worrying family history, defined in QRISK3 as a first-degree relative who developed angina or had a heart attack before the age of 60, can affect your odds in two ways. First, it is often due to inheritable glitches in cholesterol metabolism that lead to very high levels, or unhealthy mixes (typically low 'good' HDL and high 'bad' LDL). Second, even if you have normal blood fats, there are other, less well-understood inheritable factors that mean you are still at higher risk than people with no such family history. Or, to put it another way, according to QRISK3, having a positive family history can carry a similar degree of risk to smoking ten a day. Of course, we don't get to choose our parents and can't (yet) alter the genetic hand they have dealt us, but we can take steps to mitigate any additional risk, which is why it is important to 'know your numbers'. At the very least, I believe everyone over 35 should know what their cholesterol profile looks like and what their blood pressure is. You can request a cholesterol test at your GP surgery, and you don't need to fast for a basic screening one, though I advise avoiding drinking coffee as this can result in higher readings. Levels do rise with age but tend to tail off after 60, so if yours is OK after a one-off testing, and nothing else changes, there is often no need to have multiple repeat blood tests. Blood pressure checks are typically best done at home as they tend to be more accurate than a one-off reading in your surgery when you may be nervous. It is estimated that as many as one in three adults in the UK now have high blood pressure, a third of whom remain undiagnosed. And measuring it is the only way to be sure you are not one of them. Accurate machines now cost as little as £20-30 and you can borrow one if you don't have your own. If your readings are healthy (an average under 135/80 for most people), put the machine away for 6-12 months. If they are borderline, check again in 3-6 months. And if they are up, send/take your readings to your GP. A quick word about diabetes. Although most people will be all too aware that they have it, and what the implications are, there are thought to be about a million people in the UK with undiagnosed type 2, putting them at even higher risk of complications such as an early stroke or heart attack. The Diabetes UK risk calculator ( will help to determine if you may be one of them and advises on how to get tested. Finally, based on recent experience, you may want to avoid joining my social circle. QRISK3 is the preferred risk calculator for most doctors. It is designed to be used with a healthcare professional but there is no reason why you can't try it on your own. You will need to have some data to hand, such as blood pressure, height, weight, cholesterol levels etc but you can leave bits blank if unsure and QRISK will substitute an average reading for you. Results are only estimates and do not consider all risk factors, but if your heart age is significantly higher than your chronological age, you should look to mitigate modifiable ones such as blood pressure, weight and cholesterol levels.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Mondayitis Could Have a Deadly Effect On Your Body
Don't like Mondays? You might be at higher risk of stress-related health problems, including cardiovascular disease. Modern society has built up Mondays to be the least-liked day of the week. We've just come back from a relaxing weekend and now have to face all the responsibilities we've been ignoring, knowing there's the longest possible time before another weekend. Not only did a recent study by researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) identify a link between anxiety towards the first day of the working week and elevated levels of a stress hormone, the connection persisted even after retirement. While correlations do not equal causation, a jump in the stress signal cortisol is closely connected with risk of illnesses. Which could explain why a 2005 meta-analysis found that there's anywhere up to a 19 percent increase in cardiovascular events on Mondays compared to other days of the week. Related: In this latest study, researchers investigated a possible link between feelings of anxiety towards Mondays and physical health. The team examined 3,511 adults aged 50 years and over, taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA). Participants reported their levels of anxiety on different days of the week, while hair samples were also taken and analyzed for levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The study found that people who reported feeling particularly anxious on Mondays had cortisol levels around 23 percent higher than those who felt anxious on other days. This association seems to suggest that Monday anxiety affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the body's main stress management system. But chronic stress can overstimulate the HPA axis and lead to immune system issues, metabolic diseases like cancer or diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. This could be the biological mechanism behind the earlier findings of increases in cardiovascular events on Mondays, suggests the team on the new study. It might seem like an obvious work-related hazard, but strangely the study found that even retirees still felt higher stress levels on Mondays, along with the negative health effects. "Mondays act as a cultural 'stress amplifier'," says Tarani Chandola, sociologist at HKU. "For some older adults, the week's transition triggers a biological cascade that lingers for months. This isn't about work – it's about how deeply ingrained Mondays are in our stress physiology, even after careers end." Maybe Garfield was onto something. The research was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Cannabis Use Is Linked to Epigenetic Changes, Scientists Discover To Tackle Our Obesity Crisis, Experts Say Everything We Do Must Change Big City Lights Could Be Damaging Your Heart Health
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Monthly symptom suffered by millions of women linked to huge increased heart attack and stroke risk - as cases soar in young people
Millions of women who suffer a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) are at far greater risk of suffering a potentially deadly stroke, a major study suggests. While most women will suffer from PMS—which can cause distressing physical and emotional symptoms in the weeks before their period—at some point, about a third can suffer a severe form that can require treatment. Now, Swedish researchers have found women diagnosed with PMS were overall 10 per cent more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease than women without a diagnosis. Breaking down cardiovascular disease by specific health problems, the team found these women had at 27 per cent greater risk of suffering a stroke and 31 per cent of developing a heart arrhythmia. An arrhythmia is potentially serious problem with how the heart beats—either too slow, too fast or inconsistently—which can contribute to heart attacks. In the study, experts from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm examined 22 years of health data from just under 100,000 women who had been diagnosed with PMS. They compared heart health outcomes like stroke and arrhythmia diagnoses with rates in the general population as well as with the women's sisters who hadn't been diagnosed with PMS. Writing in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, the team said that even when accounting for factors known to increase cardiovascular disease risk—like obesity and smoking status—the link between health problems and PMS remained. Yihui Yang an expert in environmental medicine and first author of the study said the risk of these cardiovascular problems was particularly high for certain groups of women. 'The increased risk was particularly clear in women who were diagnosed before the age of 25 and in those who had also experienced postnatal depression, a condition that can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations,' she said. Scientists said that exactly how PMS was causing an increased risk of cardiovascular problems was unclear. They suggested that the heightened hormonal fluctuations PMS patients experience could disrupt other biological systems that control aspects like blood pressure, increase inflammation, or the conversion of food into energy, as potential factors. However, the team added this was an area in need of further research. Estimates of how many women suffer from clinically significant—meaning requiring treatment—PMS vary as different criteria can be used. Some studies put the prevalence at one in 20 while others estimate it to be 30 per cent, roughly about one in three. Medics argue that if PMS causes issues that affect a woman's physical, psychological, social and economic wellbeing than this warrants a diagnosis and subsequent support and treatment. However, British experts estimate that only between one in four and one in two women with clinically significant PMS actually seek help from doctors. PMS is an umbrella term for a range of physical and mental symptoms that typically occur one to two weeks before a woman's period. This is what is called the luteal phase of a woman's menstrual cycle and is the period between ovulation—when an egg is released from an ovary—and menstruation—the shedding of the lining of the uterus that causes vaginal bleeding. Symptoms of PMS include mood swings, depression, irritability, anxiety, sleep problems, bloating and cramping, headaches, breast tenderness, spots, greasy hair and changes in appetite. Some women experience more of these symptoms than others and the amount and severity of these can change over a course of a woman's life. Women whose PMS is causing them issues are initially advised by the NHS to take steps like exercising more, doing yoga and meditation and cutting down on smoking and alcohol to help alleviate their symptoms. If these lifestyle changes don't work women can contact their GP who can advise on further treatment. This can include cognitive behavioural therapy, hormone-based medications like the contraceptive pill, or antidepressants. More rarely, women can experience an extremely severe form of PMS known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). PMDD patients can suffer an extreme physical and mental health problems that can include full-blown psychotic episodes and suicidal feelings. The condition is thought to affect about 824,000 women in the UK and 4.2 million in the US. The new study comes as heart attacks and strokes, particularly among young people, are on the rise in the UK. Experts have blamed factors like factors like rising obesity levels as well as smoking and alcohol consumption for the rise in cardiac emergencies in the young. There is also some evidence that strokes are on the rise in younger people – with a quarter of strokes in the UK, around 20,000 cases, occurring in people of working age, according to the Stroke Association. And while stroke cases diagnosed yearly has dropped in older age groups over the last 10 to 20 years, it has doubled in those under 55, according University of Oxford researchers who have a study to try to understand the reasons behind this rise. Strokes are occur when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, usually by a blood clot in a critical artery. The medical emergency affects more than 100,000 Britons annually—one every five minutes—claiming 38,000 lives. Britons are advised to keep in mind the four-letter acronym, FAST (Face, arms, speech, time) for potential stroke symptoms.
