Hot Topics in Heart Disease Prevention and Treatment
From prevention to treatment, cardiovascular medicine is changing rapidly.
During Heart Disease Awareness Month, experts at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center are available to discuss new strategies for improving patient care and the quality of patients’ lives as they combat heart disease, the nation’s leading cause of death.
From high blood pressure, childhood obesity, heart valve disease and arrhythmias to sudden death among athletes, here are some buzz-worthy topics in heart health:
Heart device use on the rise
LaVisha McDonald walks two to three miles every other day and not many people on a heart transplant list can say that. “Most people waiting for transplant surgery … Their life is on hold.
My doctor told me to go live,” says LaVisha, a mother of six who has no time for a hospital bed. Doctors at the U-M Cardiovascular Center implanted a left ventricle assist device that pumps blood for her in a way her failing heart no longer can. With the number of donor hearts remaining stable, increasingly heart patients nationwide are living normal lives with the help of heart devices. The U-M Center for Circulatory Support is also leading a study to examine earlier device use for heart failure patients.
Sudden cardiac death among athletes
Every year, we hear about deaths among young athletes on the sports field or on the court. Sudden cardiac death in young athletes is often caused by an underlying heart disease such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is inherited from one generation to the next. Simply improving pre-participation screening and conducting electrocardiograms on properly selected children may help reduce cardiac deaths.
Five simple rules to fight childhood obesity
Reaching five simple goals – make better beverage choices, be active, eat fewer fast and fatty foods, spend less time in front of a screen - could change a generation’s health. Project Healthy Schools, founded by researchers at the U-M CVC, teaches sixth graders habits to prevent childhood obesity and its long-term health risks such as diabetes and heart disease. PHS is one of the few school programs in the nation to prove it gets children in better shape by lowering their cholesterol and blood pressure.
Seven Steps to Control Blood Pressure
• Lose weight if you are overweight - even a small drop in weight can lower blood pressure significantly. In some overweight people, a loss of as little as 5 to 10 pounds can make antihypertensive drugs unnecessary.
• Limit your daily alcohol intake to less than two drinks daily.
• Exercise regularly.
• Don’t smoke.
• Keep your sodium intake under 2,400 milligrams per day (the amount in 6 grams of salt—a little more than a teaspoon).
• Maintain an adequate dietary intake of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and dietary fiber, which may help prevent or lower high blood pressure.
• Reduce your intake of saturated fat and cholesterol, which can help you reduce weight and is beneficial for overall cardiovascular health.
Steadying an irregular heartbeat
Each year thousands of children and adults from Michigan and across the country come to the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Center and Congenital Heart Center for treatment of heart rhythm defects called arrhythmias. Now, the U-M’s prominence in this field will grow, with the recruitment of a dozen new heart rhythm researchers. By April, the Center for Arrthymia Research will include 85 people, all collaborating with U-M doctors to turn their research findings into better care for patients.
High-risk aortic patients have new options
For the first time physicians have a way to treat high-risk aortic valve patients. Select U.S. hospitals are now performing minimally invasive procedures called transcather aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, to replace a patient’s diseased aortic valve without open heart surgery. U-M surgeons and interventional cardiologists are working together to offer the new FDA-approved Edwards SAPIEN Heart Valve and through a clinical trial, Medtronic’s CoreValve prosthesis.
Prevent and control high blood cholesterol
High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease. Preventing and treating high blood cholesterol includes eating a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fiber, keeping a healthy weight, and getting regular exercise. All adults should have their cholesterol levels checked once every five years. If yours is high, your doctor may prescribe medicines to help lower it.
Prevent and control high blood pressure
Lifestyle actions such as healthy diet, regular physical activity, not smoking, and healthy weight will help you to keep normal blood pressure levels and all adults should have their blood pressure checked on a regular basis. Blood pressure is easily checked. If your blood pressure is high, you can work with your doctor to treat it and bring it down to the normal range. A high blood pressure can usually be controlled with lifestyle changes and with medicines when needed.
Prevent and control diabetes
People with diabetes have an increased risk of heart disease but can reduce their risk. Also, people can take steps to reduce their risk for diabetes in the first place, through weight loss and regular physical activity.
New coverage for cardiovascular prevention screening
Medicare will now completely cover one face-to-face visit each year to talk to a primary care provider about the best ways to help prevent cardiovascular disease. The visit’s focus is on the “ABCS”: aspirin for people at risk, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation. It’s part of the federal Million Hearts initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. Cardiovascular disease prevention experts can provide guidance on keeping hearts well.