Proactive measures include adopting heart-healthy lifestyle habits, testing for common risk factors and preventing or managing chronic diseases that impact on heart health.
CLEVELAND, Ohio: While addressing risk factors for heart disease is beneficial at any age, an expert from global health system Cleveland Clinic is appealing to individuals to focus on heart disease prevention from a young age so that they may mitigate cardiovascular damage by avoiding preventable risk factors and tackling existing modifiable risk factors early.
The appeal comes ahead of World Heart Day, marked on 29 September. The awareness day is organized the World Heart Federation, which reports that more than 18.6 million people worldwide die each year from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), a class of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels. This represents more deaths than from any other cause. Of these deaths, 85% are due to coronary heart diseases, for example, heart attacks, and cerebrovascular diseases, for example, strokes.
Ashish Sarraju, MD, a preventive cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic says says, “In healthcare today, we focus on both primordial and primary prevention, so it is never too early to start taking steps to reduce cardiovascular risk. Primordial prevention is an approach to prevent the development of the risk factors that lead to heart disease such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and so on. Primary prevention, on the other hand, involves recognizing and intervening as early as possibly to aggressively control any risk factors that a person has already developed.”
Dr. Sarraju advises patients in their 20s or younger to start thinking about the risk factors for heart disease that are modifiable, and to take positive steps to address these or to discuss them with their healthcare provider. He cites ‘Life’s Essential 8’, the American Heart Association’s guideline that identifies an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, nicotine exposure, poor sleep health, elevated body weight and high blood lipids (cholesterol), blood glucose and blood pressure as the factors to address.
In addition to these eight risk factors, Dr. Sarraju adds that there are risk-enhancing factors that should also be taken into account, and which enable a personalized approach to CVD prevention. Among these are ethnicity – with South Asians and Middle-Easterners being at a higher risk for CVD – and a family history of premature heart disease, that is, having a first-degree relative diagnosed with heart disease at age 55 or under in the case of male relatives, or at age 65 and under in the case of female relatives.
Other risk-enhancing factors include having metabolic syndrome; chronic kidney disease; chronic inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis; premature menopause; and having experienced high blood pressure or high blood sugar during pregnancy.
“If a patient has any risk-enhancing factors, it is a good idea to consult a physician to discuss what proactive steps can be taken to mitigate their elevated risk for CVD,” says Dr. Sarraju.
He adds, “Even if you have no risk factors, it is still a good idea to go and see a primary care doctor at least once for a quick health screen and basic tests such as measuring blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. If there are no issues, then you can reassess the situation at least every four to six years – or sooner as recommended by physicians – if you are aged from 20 to 40, or more frequently if you are aged 40 or older.”
About Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 72,500 employees worldwide are more than 5,050 salaried physicians and researchers, and 17,800 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,500-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 22 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, including locations in northeast Ohio; southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2021, there were 10.2 million total outpatient visits, 304,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 259,000 surgical cases throughout Cleveland Clinic’s health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 185 countries.
