2024-05-13 03:48:18
Stress is as damaging as smoking
The professor singled out stress, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases that is not adequately evaluated by the population.
“We know that stress and anxiety in the body affect heart function. The problem is that doctors don’t have a tool to measure how much stress a patient is under.
Scientific evidence shows that stress at home and at work is equivalent to active smoking. We should understand that stress is a huge risk factor,” said Prof. R. Kubilius.
This is because prolonged stress releases cortisol, which leads to long-term, harmful changes in the body.
“Increased levels of cortisol in hair, ie higher levels of chronic stress, are associated with larger waist circumference, altered lipid metabolism, and higher blood glucose levels.
All these factors are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases,” the portal said lrytas.lt medical biologist dr. Eglė Mazgelytė. You can find the full interview with the researcher here.
Blood vessels age faster than humans
R. Kubilius also said that cardiologists have distinguished the term “age of blood vessels”.
“If the patient actively smokes, has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, those factors cause damage to blood vessels.
It is possible to say that the biological age of the patient is 40 years, but the age of his blood vessels may correspond to 50 or 60 years,” explained the professor.
He continued that there are paradoxes. For example, a 27-year-old patient came to the doctors because of an acute myocardial infarction. Doctors had to explain to the young man’s surprised mother that the guy’s blood vessels were like those of a 60-year-old.
“The age written in the passport does not protect anything at all,” stated R. Kubilius.
The professor added that the age of blood vessels can be measured based on whether a person has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or smokes.
It turns out that blood vessels can be even 20 years “older” than what is written in a person’s passport.
“Beauty professionals promise rejuvenation, but they only talk about the skin. We still don’t have a tool that would allow us to rejuvenate blood vessels so that they last longer,” said R. Kubilius.
The professor joked that if there was a way to clean the drains, there was no such thing as a person could drink and not have calcification left behind.
“Unfortunately, they need interventional treatment and repair. Often, those patients who develop cardiovascular diseases ask if they will need to take 5-6 types of drugs until the end of their lives (…) However, plaques form and the longer we do not manage the risk factors, the greater the irreparable damage to the blood vessels,” – the professor spoke.
Two diseases – “sister killers”
The pitfall of heart disease is its silent nature. A person with high blood pressure and high cholesterol may not experience symptoms, even though their body is suffering.
R. Kubilius noticed that Lithuanian women are more involved in screening for oncological diseases than for heart diseases.
“There is a term in English that arterial hypertension and dyslipidemia are ‘sister killers.’ It means that they can be silent, disappear in the body, but damage our blood vessels.
We have myths in us, we try to protect ourselves from oncological disease, to find out about it as early as possible, but we think that cardiovascular diseases will overtake us”, said the professor.
At the age of 40-50, doctors recommend health check-ups. More than one free preventive program operates in Lithuania.
The professor noticed that residents of cities participate in them more actively than those of districts. However, residents of towns and villages do not live shorter lives. Why?
“I am communicating with my colleagues from my native Gargžda, who mentioned that two-thirds of the people living in rural areas grow their own fruits and vegetables. They have counted quite a few people in their 90s there.
I have an internal answer that it is easier for them to avoid cardiovascular risk factors. Especially since recently we are talking about civilized environmental risk factors such as particulate pollution, summer heat in the city, which also affect our cardiovascular system.
I emphasize to the students that we do not currently know what cardiovascular risk factors are at work. In 10 years, we will look back and say that we did not know such simple things”, said R. Kubilius.
He added that one of the more recent discoveries of cardiologists is the effect of lack of sleep on blood vessels. It has been observed that sleeping less than 6 hours at night affects the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.
Hormones protect women
It is common to believe that myocardial infarction is more common in men. However, it is increasingly noticed that this condition does not bypass women either.
“Women under the age of 60 have a kind of hormonal immunity against cardiovascular diseases. They are at least a decade late for women. When she reaches menopause, the risk factors for heart diseases become more active,” said R. Kubilius.
It is true, he added, that recently heart attacks also occur in young women aged 30-35. As a rule, they all smoke.
“Women are sometimes more prone to spontaneous rupture of the atherosclerotic plaque. We can guess that smoking also catalyzes the instability of the atherosclerotic plaque, its rupture and blood vessel blockage,” the cardiologist warned.
4 heart health whales
Although more seriously concerned doctors advise from the age of 40, even younger people should know their blood pressure and cholesterol level. Doing basic research is a must.
“When I started working, the recommended level of bad cholesterol for all heart attack patients was less than 2.6 mmHg.
Then we got the recommendation to go down to 1.8 mmHg and I thought that was a major change that was going to be very difficult to achieve.
Finally, 3 years ago we received new recommendations that the concentration of bad cholesterol should be no more than 1.4 mmHg.
Naturally, I was shocked at how this could be. In the new recommendations, which are being prepared for 2026, experts say that bad cholesterol should be 1 mmHg less.
Scientists process huge data and see that the lower the cholesterol concentration in the blood, the better the patient’s prognosis. It is an essential risk factor that deserves the greatest attention,” said R. Kubilius.
He added that total cholesterol is no longer given as much importance as bad cholesterol, or what is medically called low-density lipoprotein, is the most important. The value of bad cholesterol in healthy people should not be higher than 2.3-2.6 mmHg if they do not have risk factors.
“It is very important that smoking, including electronic and vaping tobacco, is a risk factor,” said the professor, who also emphasized the benefits of physical activity.
So, cholesterol, blood pressure, physical activity and smoking are the 4 main things that a person paying attention to can say that they are taking care of their cardiovascular health.
“Of course, we emphasize to the patient that if there are symptoms in the area of the heart that have never been there before, a tremor, we say, it is necessary to seek help, to find out whether it is caused by cardiovascular disease.
It should be taken even more seriously if first-degree relatives, father, mother, brothers, sisters, have suffered from cardiovascular disease.
2024-05-13 03:48:18