Put Your Heart Health First

February is the month of love, where we talk all things that involve your heart. At Kijani, we also want to put your heart health first. We want you to better take care of your heart, your health and your loved ones.

According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), heart and circulatory disease are the cause of death of 1 in 4 people in the UK. This equates to 1 death every 4 minutes. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death on a global scale. Today in the UK, 7.4 million people are living with a heart or circulatory disease and around 80% of them have at least another health condition.

What does Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) mean?
CVD is an umbrella term that describes all disease of the heart as well as circulation. This includes conditions ranging from: Diagnosis at birth, an inherited heart disease condition to developed conditions later in life such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke or abnormal heart rhythm.

What are your risk factors?
Risk factors can play a part in increasing your likelihood of developing CVD.

- Genetic predisposition: A family history of heart disease puts us at a higher risk of developing CVD so more attention must be paid to our health. CVD is more common where a person is a male, older, has a severe mental illness or ethnicity is South Asian or African. (PHE, 2019)

- Hypertension: 27% of us have High Blood Pressure (BP) which is about 15 million adults and more than half of us are not receiving effective treatment. Nearly 10 million people have had a diagnosis, but it is estimated that 6-8 million of us are living with undiagnosed or uncontrolled high BP. Alarmingly 50 % of heart attacks and strokes are associated with high BP.

- Diabetes: Adults with diabetes are 2-3 times more likely to develop CVD and are nearly twice more likely to die from a heart disease or stroke than those without diabetes. A staggering 3.9 million adults have been diagnosed, but there is an estimated 740, 000 people in the UK to yet have a diagnosis.

- High Blood Cholesterol: Is another significant risk factor, and nearly half of adults in the UK are estimated to have cholesterol levels above the recommended level of 5 mmol/L. Around 7-8 million of adults have to take lipid lowering drugs such as statins, which tend to come with their own long-term side effects.

- Smoking: About 1 in 7 adults smoke in the UK, and we know that nearly 100, 000 smokers die from smoking related causes, and 20, 000 of those are related to heart and circulatory diseases.  Smoking puts those surrounding you (i.e. second-hand smoke) at a 20-30 % greater risk of heart disease and other health complications.  

Does inflammation have a role in heart disease?
Although progress has been made, be it general awareness about heart health in the media or individuals being more responsive about their health, as well as advances in latest research and medical techniques in the last few decades, people are living longer but not necessarily healthier! Heart attacks which were once fatal, are recovered from. Greater awareness of a healthy lifestyle is present but often less so in areas of lower socioeconomic status, therefore widening the health gap.

So what are we missing here?
From a functional medicine perspective, it is the inflammatory processes that really play a central role in all aspects of CVD. From the initial lesions found in the arteries to end-stage complications leading to a heart attack. Inflammation can occur when the immune system is activated to protect our body from harm. Where heart disease is concerned, the immune system recognises oxidative damage within the arteries and wades in with the immune cells to ‘engulf’ the potentially harmful substances. Lesions are formed on the artery walls which narrow our vessels.

It perhaps makes more sense now as to why it is very important to protect ourselves against ‘oxidative damage’ and reduce the inflammatory response thereafter, because a constant low grade inflammation is very harmful to all areas of health.

Adopting a more holistic view on how we can best support our heart, must take into account factors that affect the body as a whole.

Make sure to read our second blog to know your next steps to a healthy heart and feel empowered to nurture your heart! (perhaps add link to next blog) 

REFERENCES
- British Heart Foundation (BHF). British Heart Foundation UK Factsheet (2020) Available at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health

- EU Register on Nutrition and Health Claims (2015)

- Murray and Pizzorno (2012). The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. 3rd edition, New York: Atria Paperback.

- Public Health England, PHE (2019 ) Health Matters: Preventing Cardiovascular Disease https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease