Written by Juhi Kumari |Published : September 3, 2019 9:04 PM IST
Are you addicted to smoking? Do you love sitting almost entire day? If the answer is yes, you may develop some sort of heart disease very soon. This is what a new research is saying. By heart diseases, we mean an array of health conditions that can affect your heart. According to WHO, cardiovascular diseases claim lives of around 17.9 million people every year world-wide. This number is 31 per cent of all deaths globally. Let's know more about the recent research.
According to a recent study presented at ESC Congress 2019, lifestyle habits like physical inactivity and smoking, that leads to hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol, play a major role than genetics in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Many people complaints about their genetics to be a contributing factor for the heart disease. Well, it does but you can't look at the other important factors with blind eye. They have vital roles as well.
For the research, the scientists enrolled 1,075 patients. All of them were under 50 and were suffering from coronary artery disease. The average age of these participants was 45 and 85 per cent among them were men. The scientists compared the levels of risk factors (high blood pressure, physical inactivity, smoking, diabetes, and high cholesterol) and genetics among the study participants with a control group of 520 healthy volunteers. The average age of these subjects was 44 and 86 per cent of them include men.
The study result showed that 73 per cent of the study group population had at least three risk factors compared to 31 per cent of the control group population. Also, the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases increased in both the groups based on increased risk factors. Notably, the likelihood of hear diseases was 3,7,24 times higher with 1, 2, and 3 or more rick factors respectively.
Additionally, the study team made each of the patients undergo genome sequencing. This was done to use the data to develop a genetic risk score. It included 33 variants that were risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Though the average score was noticed to be greater in patients than the control group, the role of genetics compared to risk factors of hear diseases declined with increase in number of modifiable factors.
With this result, the study team concluded that genetics does play a significant role in the onset of cardiovascular diseases. But in patients having two or more modifiable risk factors of heart diseases, genetics have less decisive role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle in order to avoid your likelihood of developing diseases associated with heart.
"Prevention is better than cure," runs the saying. You must have heard this already. To avoid heart complications and minimise your visit to the cardiologist's chamber, it is better to look for your risk factors and take the necessary steps in advance. That's one of the best ways to prevent heart conditions. Here is a low-down on the conditions that up your cardiac risks.
If you love spending hours just sitting on your sofa, you are lazy and inactive. Even a slight physical movement is required to keep yourself fit and fine. According to the recommendations of The American Heart Association, everyone should at least indulge in 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercises three to four times every week. It will reduce your risk of dying prematurely from heart diseases. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reveals that inactivity can make you gain excessive weight and excess fat can get accumulated in your arteries blocking the blood flow to the heart muscles. This can cause heart attack.
If you smoke quite frequently, the nicotine present in cigarettes, can create a blockage in the artery reducing the oxygen flow to the heart muscles. This can put excessive pressure on your heart to pump blood leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure. This can further lead to heart failure or heart attack. Smoking also contributes to blood clot in the arteries supplying blood to the brain. This can potentially cause stroke and you may lose your life.
Indulging in unhealthy lifestyle like having too much salt, smoking, drinking etc. can lead to hypertension. This is a condition in which blood flowing through the arteries exerts more pressure on its walls than required. It is usually characterized by symptoms like headaches, shortness of breath, or nosebleed. High blood pressure can potentially damage the artery wall. In this case, fat present in the blood flowing through the damaged artery may gets deposited in that area limiting blood flow throughout your body including heart muscles, leading to heart attack. High blood pressure can also weaken your heart gradually leading to heart failure eventually. To avoid onset of hypertension, exercise regularly, reduce your sodium intake, don't take stress, and limit the amount of alcohol you consume.
Having diabetes means high levels of sugar in the blood. This can potentially damage your blood vessels and nerves controlling your blood vessels and heart. According to the experts in the field, having diabetes makes you twice at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than those without the condition. Damaged arteries or blood vessels can gather fat from the blood, and this may lead to clogging and limited blood flow to the heart muscles. Also, the clot may form in the blood vessel supplying blood to the brain, causing stroke. To keep diabetes at bay, you are advised to indulge in regular exercise and eat foods with low sugar content. Also, cut refined carbs from your diet and stop smoking.
As explained earlier, high cholesterol level in your blood can cause its accumulation in the arteries supplying it throughout the body. Due to this your arteries can become narrowed blocking the flow of blood to the muscles in the heart. This can potentially lead to heart attack. You can prevent this condition by limiting or avoiding the cholesterol containing foods. Notably, you need to exclude trans fats from your daily diet. Foods containing this kind of fat includes frozen pizza, coffee creamer, fast foods, cookies, bakes goods etc.
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