Among all causes of death, mortality from cardiovascular diseases consistently ranks first. In 2022, 831,557 Russians died for this reason, according to Rosstat. And this terrifying figure is 11% less than the figure for 2021 – 933,986 deaths from heart and vascular diseases, here the statistics were affected by the covid pandemic, the virus of which was especially dangerous for heart patients.
How to prevent heart attacks and strokes
Dmitry Gryaznov
How to prevent heart attacks and strokes, correspondents of “MY!” said cardiovascular surgeon Dmitry Vladimirovich Gryaznov.
1. Heart attack and stroke are terrible diseases. Who is at risk first? How to prevent the disease?
Of course, heart attack and stroke are among the most dangerous manifestations of atherosclerotic heart disease and blood vessels, hypertension. To prevent these dangerous complications from happening, you need to prevent these diseases – lead a healthy lifestyle, follow a regular physical activity regimen: walking, light jogging, etc. It is worth reducing your stress level and getting enough sleep. If you are overweight, you need to try to get rid of it and follow a diet: reduce your intake of foods high in protein and fat, include foods with plant fiber in your diet, and drink enough fluids.
Life expectancy in Russia is not the highest, and this is also due to the early occurrence of heart attacks and strokes. The typical age for manifestations of atherosclerosis and its complications is age after 45 years. If we encounter cases of heart attack in a teenager who played sports during training, or cases of stroke at a young age, then most often they are a consequence of other cardiovascular diseases: primarily vascular anomalies and cardiomyopathies. These risks can be prevented by timely medical examination.
Myocardial infarction – this is the death (necrosis) of a section of the heart muscle due to a sharp disruption of the blood supply in the coronary arteries.
Unfortunately, one of the important risk factors for atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes is genetic predisposition, but preventive measures can delay the manifestation of the disease and reduce its risk. All diagnostic and therapeutic measures are carried out according to the decision of specialists; you should not do this yourself. Cardiologists treat the consequences of what was not prevented in time.
Who is at main risk?
Overweight people; hypertensive people; smokers; alcohol abusers; people constantly experiencing stress; people with concomitant diseases, such as diabetes.
By the way, men begin to suffer from such diseases earlier than women.
In our region there is one of the best services in the country for helping patients with cardiological and neurovascular profiles, as well as with surgical pathology of the cardiovascular system. Urgent and planned intravascular catheter interventions on the heart and blood vessels are performed in 3 hospitals in the city and 2 hospitals in the region, the number of such hospitals will increase in the near future.
2. The heart valve is not working well, is this a death sentence? What leads to this, is it necessary to undergo surgery?
Valvular heart disease is a separate group of pathologies. Some pathological changes in the heart valve occur in approximately 3% of the population. Valve disease changes over time – if 30 – 40 years ago most heart defects were associated with rheumatism, now we divide heart defects into two main groups: hereditary, genetically predisposed and those that form with age, when the valve is “overgrown” with calcium.
The majority of patients with valve defects do not need to be operated on; it is enough to observe them—an annual examination by a cardiologist and an ultrasound of the heart. For a certain number of patients, surgery will allow them to maintain their quality of life and increase its duration. If the disease is advanced, then operations are not performed. Therefore, you should consult a doctor as early as possible.
3. Many people complain about arrhythmia. How to get examined, who treats this disease?
Rhythm disturbances are a very wide range of diseases, starting from ordinary extrasystoles, which occur in everyone, but in the patient they are detected in pathological quantities. Extrasystoles can be detected in 60 – 70% of people. They are mainly functional in nature; their appearance is provoked by stress, smoking, alcohol, strong tea and coffee. A patient with complaints should contact a therapist, who, in turn, refers him to a cardiologist, who prescribes medication or surgical treatment.
For some rhythm disturbances, it is necessary to implant a pacemaker. Patients in our region are provided with pacemakers.
4. Who comes to your appointment: by age, men, women, by occupation?
The range of my patients is wide – among them there are children, elderly patients, men and women. 20 percent of them have nonspecific complaints: burning in the chest, rhythm disturbances, “wrong” blood pressure numbers. With such people, it is enough to develop rules for their life: training regimens, diet, physical activity. A wide range of patients come with manifestations of atherosclerosis. Apparently healthy people may have hidden problems, so the common idea that “a healthy man suddenly died of a heart attack” is not entirely true.
5. Necessary research and first aid kit for the core
The most necessary examination for the prevention of dangerous diseases of the heart and blood vessels is regular visits to a therapist. Most often, primary screening examinations include blood tests, lipid metabolism tests, cardiogram, stress tests, such as Holter ECG monitoring, and cardiac ultrasound.
Today there is a huge pool of older patients who take care of themselves, give themselves exercise, follow a diet, are observed by specialists and feel much better than young people who do none of this. Talk about living on a mountain, breathing clean air and drinking water from a mountain stream is good, but difficult to achieve. At the same time, trying to follow the rules of a healthy lifestyle is important and necessary.
A patient with heart and vascular disease should regularly receive therapy prescribed by the attending physician. And these should not be “emergency” medications; all medications should be selected individually.
People die every year from heart attacks in our country. 61 thousand peopleor 7 people per hourof which 17% are people of working age.
Life expectancy in Russia at the end of 2022 increased to 72.76 years versus 70.1 years in 2021.
Photo: freepik.com
To drink or not to drink dietary supplements and vitamins?
Anastasia Alekseeva
How should you eat and what vitamins should you take to strengthen your heart and blood vessels? Cardiologist Anastasia Alexandrovna Alekseeva answered the top 5 questions about heart and vascular health.
1. What dietary supplements/vitamins can be taken to strengthen the heart and blood vessels? For example, they say that omega-3 cleans blood vessels?
A healthy person does not need to take dietary supplements to prevent diseases if he eats a nutritious and varied diet. The only vitamin that can be taken by everyone is vitamin D. If the diet is inadequate for some reason, for example, a person does not eat meat for a long time, he will be at risk for iron deficiency. But you don’t need to prescribe iron or other supplements on your own. I would recommend analyzing your diet and trying to make it more balanced.
Eating fatty fish and other natural sources of fatty acids is part of a healthy diet. Omega-3 does not clean blood vessels. If a person has signs of atherosclerosis (deposits of cholesterol plaques in blood vessels), he should receive treatment in addition to a healthy diet. Replacing the full treatment of atherosclerosis with dietary supplements is a big mistake.
2. Is cholesterol always bad? There is good and bad, how do they differ?
Cholesterol is not always bad. Hormones are synthesized from cholesterol, it is involved in the construction of cell membranes, and its excess is processed in the liver. Cholesterol cannot move throughout the body on its own, only in combination with lipoproteins. They come in high density and low density. The latter are usually called bad cholesterol for their participation in the process of atherosclerosis – the deposition of plaques in blood vessels.
3. An example of a heart diet – what is possible, what is not. Why shouldn’t you eat foods high in protein?
I wouldn’t want to put a heart patient on a strict diet. Sharp and severe restrictions imply a subsequent breakdown. A person with cardiovascular disease should have a lifelong lifestyle.
You should try to eat less fried foods, fast food, less animal fats, less sweets and starchy foods, especially if you are overweight. Try to eat a varied diet that includes healthy fats – nuts, pumpkin seeds, fatty fish, legumes, seafood. Eat more vegetables, herbs, fruits, berries.
High protein foods can be consumed. You need to focus on the daily amount of protein you receive and not exceed it. Excess protein is harmful to metabolism and can lead to urolithiasis, gout, and disrupt kidney function.
4. How many steps do you need to take for a healthy heart?
The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week to stay healthy. Walking at a brisk pace meets the definition of moderate physical activity, and walking is accessible to everyone. It is important to move at an intense pace: walk, dance, exercise on an exercise bike, swim – and do it regularly.
5. Why is high and low blood pressure dangerous?
High blood pressure causes the heart to work harder and wears out blood vessels. As a result, their walls stretch, become thinner, and may even rupture. Therefore, arterial hypertension is a common cause of myocardial infarction and stroke. With a sharp decrease in pressure, the amount of oxygen entering the brain decreases, the functions of vital organs are disrupted, and a person may lose consciousness.
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So why do hypertension and heart attacks “get younger” and even 30-year-olds die from heart attacks?
Heart attacks and strokes occur at different ages. Risk factors remain with us, despite advances in medicine: excess weight, unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption, hereditary factors, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease. They are dangerous even for young people, who also pay much less attention to their health and visit doctors less often.
2023-09-21 15:31:00
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