Hot Topics in Heart Disease Prevention and Treatment
Treating persistent hypertension
Despite taking anti-hypertensive medications, many Americans have persistently high blood pressure. A new approach being studied in the Symplicity HTN-3 clinical trial could help the 120 million people worldwide who are at-risk for heart failure, stroke and kidney failure because of treatment-resistant hypertension. The therapy is used to treat high blood pressure by using a catheter to ablate the nerves lining the renal arteries. Doctors at the U-M Cardiovascular are enrolling patients in the trial and can discuss the potential treatment for severe hypertension.
General Prevention Tips
One of the keys to preventing heart disease is getting risk factors under control, such as high blood pressure and High cholesterol levels. Main prevention tips to follow:
Eat a heart-healthy diet
Improve cholesterol levels
Exercise
Control diabetes
Control high blood pressure
Control weight
Manage stress
Quit smoking
The bottom line for prevention, says Schilling, is to follow a heart-healthy lifestyle.
“Maintain an ideal body weight, and exercise one hour a day, seven days a week,” advises Schilling. As part of a heart healthy diet, she recommends following a balanced diet with approximately 30 percent of calories from monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, canola, fish and nuts and limit saturated fats.
Also limit carbohydrates, sugar or any sugar food including white flour.
Women’s heart health
More women die from cardiovascular disease than men, and that’s been true in the U.S. since 1984. Research, like that at the U-M, is revealing why heart disease is more dangerous for women. The National Institutes of Health recommended creating female specific cardiac clinics, and the University of Michigan received one of the initial grants to start the Women’s Heart Program. Five years later, our program is one of only a few in the country to offer the full scope of cardiac treatment specifically for women.
Quit smoking. This is perhaps the single most effective step you can take. Anywhere from 20 to 40% (100,000 to 200,000 every year) of all CAD deaths in the U.S. are directly attributable to smoking. It more than doubles your chance of eventually having a heart attack and increases the chance of dying from it by 70%; it is also the leading cause of sudden cardiac death. The good news: Quitting smoking quickly reduces your CAD risk; within five to ten years of quitting, your risk of heart attack declines to a level similar to that of people who never smoked, regardless of how long you smoked.
Consider low-dose aspirin. The recommended regimen—a baby aspirin (81 milligrams) daily or half a regular aspirin (160 milligrams) very other day - can lower the risk of heart attack by about one-third by reducing the ability of platelets in the blood to stick together and thus form a clot. It is particularly advisable if you have an elevated risk of CAD. Aspirin can have side effects and isn’t right for everyone, so be sure to consult with your physician first.
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Source: University of Michigan Health System