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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Simultaneously Control Hypertension And Cholesterol Reduce Heart Disease Risk Many risk factors, including hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and binge drinking, can cause heart disease. By controlling these risk factors, the risk of getting heart disease can greatly be reduced. About 33 percent of the American adults population are affected by hypertension, which doubles the risk of heart disease. About 32 million Americans have dangerously high total blood cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dl or higher. This no doubt poses a major public health threat. Based on past research, treating hypertension reduces the risk of heart disease by 25 percent and treating high cholesterol in hypertensive patients can lower the risk by more than 35 percent. A recent study found that simultaneously controlling one’s high blood pressure and high cholesterol might cut the risk for heart disease by half or more. But less than 1 in 3 people can actually achieve this goal. Researchers from Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C. published their paper on July 2, 2013 in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal ‘Circulation’. Researchers reviewed patients’ blood pressure and cholesterol levels using data of more than 17,000 American adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys during 1988-94, 1999-2004 and 2005-10. In addition, they also took into consideration on factors such as race, age, insurance status, whether patients smoked, had diabetes, had diagnosed heart disease and/or chronic kidney disease, and if they visited a doctor every year.
Their findings showed that prescribing medications to better manage blood pressure and cholesterol would greatly benefit people who are older, diabetic, have cardiovascular disease or are Hispanic or African-American. Going to the doctor at least twice a year could help, too. Meanwhile, they also warned that people often ignore the role of cholesterol. If patients have good HDL (high-density lipoprotein) level that is supposed to be healthy and protective, then the LDL (low-density lipoprotein) that is bad might probably be overlooked. However, not all HDL is equally protective and in fact some people with a normal HDL are still at high risk of getting heart disease. Hence, patients should ask their doctors who treat their hypertension about their LDL and non-HDL levels to ensure both are under control. As a matter of fact, researchers from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research had also reported that having blood pressure and cholesterol controlled is even important than meeting guidelines for blood sugar control for diabetics in lowering the risk of heart attack or stroke for diabetics. Their findings were published on January 28, 2013 in the ‘Journal of General Internal Medicine’. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, adults with diabetes are 2 to 4 times more likely than people without diabetes to have cardiovascular disease, and most diabetics will die from a heart attack or stroke. In the study, medical records of 26,636 adult patients from the Kaiser Permanente diabetes registry in Oregon and Washington starting in 2002 were examined. These patients were followed through 2010, or until they died, left the health plan, or were hospitalized for a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack. Past evidence has indicated that controlling A1C (an average measure of blood sugar), blood pressure and cholesterol can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events but it has not been certain which of these factors is most important. This is the first study that researchers have examined all the 3 risk factors simultaneously and reported the individual contribution of each factor on diabetes-related heart disease. The study found that patients who met guidelines for all 3 risk factors and those who met the blood pressure and cholesterol guidelines were least likely to be hospitalized for a heart attack or stroke. On the other hand, those who met none of the guidelines and those who met only the blood-sugar guidelines were most likely to be hospitalized for a heart attack or stroke.
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