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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Have People Underestimated Heart Risk? Heart disease can be deadly. For example, if one gets a heart attack and does not receive timely treatment, his or her life might be jeopardized. According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease including heart attack, stroke and heart failure is the No.1 killer of people in the United States. Each year, it takes away the lives of people as many as accidents, cancer, diabetes and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. However, this does not mean that people with heart disease would have an immediate danger. Many heart disease patients can still live for a long time with the help of appropriate medications and healthy lifestyle. A recent study on heart disease risk indicated that the young Americans who were diagnosed with a low immediate risk of heart disease might not take it seriously, which means their lifetime risk could be higher. Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School pointed out in the journal Circulation on January 12, 2009 that about half of people who were 50 or under appeared to have a low risk of heart disease over the next 10 years already had their arteries damaged that could actually cause trouble later. In other words, their low risk would not remain throughout their lives.
The usual approach to assess a patient’s risk of heart disease is to use the Framingham Risk Scores, which takes into account of the patient’s cholesterol levels, blood pressure and other factors for predicting cardiovascular risk for the next 10 years. This almost automatically profiles anyone under the age of 50 to have a low 10-year risk. However, heart disease usually develops gradually. Once the plaque has built up in arteries, the blood flow will be reduced, and unstable clumps in the arteries could just break off and cause strokes or heart attack. In 2 clinical studies, the researchers examined the 10-year and lifetime risk scores of some 4,000 people aged 50 and younger. They found that 91 percent of those aged 50 and under had a low immediate risk of heart disease, as what their doctors would have told them so. Nevertheless, half of these people actually had a high lifetime risk. The participants had to undergo unusually thorough examinations, and the ultrasound measurements of their carotid arteries and CAT scans for calcium were analyzed. CAT scan is also known as CT scan, or computed tomography scan, in full. These 2 types of scans are capable of showing early evidence of artery disease. Results of the study showed that people who had a high lifetime risk as indicated by levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and other measures also had beginnings of the physical evidence of heart disease, including thicker artery linings and hardened plaques. Obviously, the findings have suggested that there are significant differences in the presence and progress of atherosclerosis, which is a disease in which plaque builds up on the insides of the arteries. The researches further argued that if the doctors can reveal the lifetime risk to their patients instead of telling them only about their 10-year risk, the patients could act right away to change their lifestyles to minimize the lifetime risk.
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