What is Cardiac & Vascular Disease?
Cardiac &-Vascular disease is a ‘catch-all’ term for all diseases of the heart and blood vessels. These mostly develop in later life but also include conditions a person is born with or has inherited. The most common types are: high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, coronary (ischaemic) heart disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke and vascular dementia.
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How common is Cardiac & Vascular Disease?
1 in 3 adults in the UK have high blood pressure. That’s around 15 million adults, many of whom may be undiagnosed or taking ineffective treatment. Around 7.6 million people live with cardio-vascular disease. It is thought more than 50% of people will get a heart or circulatory condition in their lifetime. Though survival has improved substantially in recent years, with better preventive and treatment strategies, cardiac and vascular disease continues to cause around 25% of all deaths in the UK; more than 160,000 deaths annually, or 1 death every 3 minutes.
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What is High Blood Pressure?
When the pressure of blood in your arteries exceeds normal, it is considered high blood pressure (hypertension). ​If it is consistently high it means your heart must work harder over long periods. ​If you ignore high blood pressure, your vessels can become stiff and blocked, which can lead to heart damage; strokes; dementia; kidney damage; sight loss and other organ problems.
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What is the role of Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is essential to life, and supports many important structures of the body. All cells produce their own cholesterol and a large amount is held in the liver. Cholesterol is transported in lipoproteins around the body to be put to functional use. Certain lipoproteins, combined with oxidation and inflammation can lead to atherosclerotic plaques. Controlling these specific lipoproteins can help to mitigate long term risk.
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Coronary Heart Disease
Coronary (ischaemic) heart disease occurs when the arteries of your heart narrow due to build-up of atherosclerotic plaques in their walls. This commonly occurs without symptoms, or with chest pains, or a variety of symptoms dependent on where the damage is occurring. If a blockage occurs, or the plaque breaks free and dislodges, this process can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction)
​A heart attack occurs when an artery which supplies the heart gets blocked. This can cause part of the muscle to weaken, die and/or become ineffective, resulting in heart failure. In the 1960s more than 7 out of 10 heart attacks in the UK were fatal. Today, due to the techniques of modern medicine at least 7 out of 10 people survive. ​
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Atrial Fibrillation
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is when the heart beats irregularly. It can occur with or without symptoms. It is a common abnormality and a major cause of stroke. Around 1.5 million people in the UK have AF. At least 1 in 8 are not treated effectively. In the UK, it is thought at least 270,000 people have undiagnosed AF.
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Heart Failure
Heart failure is when the heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it should. This can happen for many reasons but is often due to muscle damage after a heart attack.
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Stroke
A stroke occurs when blood to part of the brain is cut off due to blood vessel blockage or bleeding. A transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is known as a “mini-stroke” and is caused by a short-term ‘temporary’ blockage in the blood supply to a part of the brain. Stroke is one of the biggest killers in the UK, causing around 35,000 deaths each year. Stroke is the single biggest cause of severe disability in the UK.
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Risk factors for Cardiac & Vascular Disease: your risk is higher if you're:
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​​Male and over 40
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Overweight and or/ have a large waist circumference
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A smoker
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Eating too much salt or too many of the wrong foods, drink too much sugary drinks and/or alcohol, and don’t exercise regularly
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Have high blood pressure and/or have cholesterol levels of concern
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Diabetic or suffer with metabolic syndrome
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Of African Caribbean, Black African or Mixed ethnicity
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Have a family history of cardio-vascular disease
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Have a history of other related conditions
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Preventing Cardiac & Vascular Disease
Though cardiac ‘events’ often occur generally in late middle age and onwards, the underlying processes can start much earlier in our young lives. So preventive strategies applied intelligently in early years can help to reduce risk in later life.
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Research has shown that for some, combined lifestyle interventions, including diet, physical exercise, stopping smoking and maintaining a normal weight can be effective in preventing or minimising your risk of cardio-vascular disease. ​At The Orial Clinic we start talking about prevention early. We couple this with early blood tests, diagnostic imaging and medication strategies to support you to reduce your long term compounded risk.
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