Longevity and Coronary Heart Disease
Claiming the full potential for your heart – the secret to longevity …
Wasted lives
Lives are being lost unnecessarily, worldwide, due to coronary heart disease. in 2007 this claimed the lives of more than one hundred and twenty thousand people in the United Kingdom. So what is the secret to longevity based on heart health?
There is no known anti-aging longevity serum, but we now have more medical and scientific knowledge about the human heart than at any time in our history. The sad fact is that few people bother to educate themselves about anti-aging, longevity, and how to care for their heart, and many treat their hearts with little care and respect. Some even treat their hearts with such extreme abuse that they die prematurely in their forties or early fifties.
The human heart is capable of lasting 120 years!
The latest longevity statistics research from the United States suggest that the heart was designed to last well past our 100th birthday – maybe even for one hundred and twenty years. This agrees with factual data obtained from studying the medical records for health and longevity from the countries which have the world’s oldest living people and the longest average life span.
The heart is an amazing machine – a miraculous collection of muscle, blood vessels and nerve tissue which has to beat continuously from the moment we are born, and for the rest of our lives. In a typical day our hearts will beat 100,000 times forcing life preserving oxygen-rich blood to the farthest corners of our bodies. This equates to 34 million beats per year. how many man-made machines can claim such a reliable performance?
We threaten our own health daily
Yet, we are constantly threatening the health and long term survival of this vital organ by our own lifestyles, behaviours and habits. We eat unhealthy diets, smoke cigarettes and tobacco, drink too much alcohol, expose ourselves to excessive stress and don’t take sufficient exercise.
International longevity risk – where do people live the longest lives?
Well, it’s a small, unassuming island off the coast of Japan – Okinawa. This is known as the world capital for super longevity, as this place has the greatest proportion of centenarians (people over the age of 100) in the entire world. Amazingly, in Okinawa, there are 35 people per 100,000 over a hundred years old. By comparison, the United Kingdom can only manage a paltry 10 people.
Why do these folks live such long lives?
There is no longevity pill, but the folks from Okinawa have a long life because they have a healthy lifestyle! This in turn produces a healthy heart. They tick all the right boxes for heart health based on :-
- A diet low in saturated fat
- High consumption of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish
- A stress-free, calm and serene lifestyle
- A daily fitness and exercise regimen
This combination in turn produces the heart healthy benefits of arteries free from disease, low blood cholesterol levels and lack of blood clotting plaque forming Atherosclerosis symptoms. There is also evidence to support the theory of calorie restriction longevity, where people who consume only 80 percent of their recommended daily calorie intake – known as ‘hara hachi bu’ – gain positive heart health benefits from this practice.
Heart health not genetic, but behavioural
Medical research into the lives of the people from Okinawa has concluded that their healthy lifestyle is responsible for an amazing 80 percent of their long lives. Only 20 percent of the long lived residents old age could be attributed to genetic factors, so there is no longevity-gene for these folks.
However, there is a disturbing prologue to the above success story – in more recent times, the increasing shift towards a more westernised diet and lifestyle has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the heart health of Okinawans under the age of 50 years – as this group unfortunately now has the highest rate of heart disease in the whole of Japan – proof if it were needed that nurture rather than nature is the principal and overriding factor related to heart health and survival into the centenarian category.
Coronary Heart Disease Causes
Coronary heart disease definition (CHD)
A common question we receive is ‘what is coronary heart disease’? CHD may be summarised by what happens when your heart’s blood supply is blocked, or interrupted, by a build-up of fatty substances in the coronary arteries. These deposits can cause the walls of your arteries to become coated (or furred up), which is known as atherosclerosis. If your coronary arteries – the ones which feed the heart – are narrowed, then the blood supply to your heart will be restricted. This can cause pain in the chest, or angina.
If a coronary artery becomes completely blocked, it can cause a heart attack, or to quote the correct medical term – a myocardial infarction.
Coronary heart disease facts
It is important to consider that healthcare professionals are usually only involved when heart disease becomes evident, and sometimes this can be too late. So, overwhelmingly, prevention is better than cure. The following coronary heart disease statistics can be very sobering :-
- Heart disease affects nearly 1 million people in the United Kingdom
- Heart disease kills more than 110,000 people each year in the United Kingdom
- 40 percent of patients who die of a heart attack have no prior warning
- 50 percent of heart attack deaths occur in the first two hours following the attack
- Doctors and heart specialists typically see less than 5 percent of patients who die after a sudden heart attack
A relatively new illness?
Coronary heart disease has only been recognised as a major disease for about a hundred years. In the last few decades we have seen major scientific advances in its diagnosis and treatment through drugs and surgical procedures which has resulted in thousands of lives being saved.
However despite all this progress, worldwide heart disease statistics indicate that heart disease is still increasing dramatically.
Coronary heart disease develops in the arteries over a long period of time. However it is possible to personally influence whether this terrible dread disease will take a hold over your life or not.
Previous generations had much simpler lives
It is very obvious that our ancestors lead very different lives from us. In order to feed themselves, they had to use a lot of physical energy to hunt, or manually farm their food. The type of food they ate largely consisted of vegetables, fruit and nuts with some fish or meat if they had a lucky break on the previous hunting trip.
The way the food was cooked also differed – it would usually have been cooked in a hurry over an open fire, rather than refined and over-cooked, thus losing much nutritional value. But most importantly the pre-historic diet was extremely low in fat. We could refer to this as the perfect ‘anti’ coronary heart disease diet.
Compare that with the modern lifestyle – consumption of high quantities of highly refined processed foods that are also high in saturated fat, salt and sugar. Combined with sedentary or inactive lifestyles with insufficient physical activity and exercise - you have a recipe for illness and disease.
Excessive fat consumption puts a strain on the liver, which is responsible for maintaining the correct level of cholesterol within the body. The excessive fat consumption associated with the modern western diet causes the liver to ‘overflow’ it’s capacity to remove surplus ‘low density molecules’ which are high in ‘bad’ or ‘LDL’ cholesterol lipoproteins.
The human genome project has provided us with some incredible science regarding our genetic make-up. There is good scientific evidence that the human genetic footprint requires a diet and lifestyle that is closer to the pre-historic variety than the modern variety. So it makes sense that if we wish to avoid this disease then we need to return to a lifestyle and diet which is closer to our ancestors.
Symptoms of coronary heart disease
The symptoms of CHD may only begin to manifest themselves after many years or decades of physical neglect. this is why it is known as the silent killer. Most heart disease will remain hidden until it becomes a serious problem. the following symptoms indicate a well established heart problem which requires urgent medical action to prevent a major catastrophe in the sufferer’s life :-
- Chest pain, also called angina
- Shortness of breath when exercising or during another vigorous activity
A fast heartbeat - Weakness, dizziness, and feeling sick to your stomach (nausea)
- Increased sweating.
Importance of understanding the risk factors
In order to prevent CHD, we need to fully understand the causes, which involves looking at all the risk factors. There are many different reasons which cumulatively increase the risk of developing a heart condition. The major ones which are listed below are responsible for 90 percent of all first heart attacks :-
- smoking
- high blood pressure
- poor diet
- excess body fat
- insufficient exercise
- excess stress
It is never too late to reduce the chance of developing heart disease
Even after many years of neglecting our heart health, the health of the arteries can be improved by making some simple but major lifestyle changes. The most important of these are to adopt a healthy diet, take healthy exercise, lose excess weight, and quit smoking.
Different Types of Heart Disease Medications
What are the different types of heart disease medications?
If you have coronary heart disease (CHD) or are at risk of developing it, your health care professional may prescribe medication to treat your condition, lower your blood cholesterol, or help you to lower your blood
pressure.
But have you wondered why there are so many different types of heart medication available, and what the differences between them are?
This article briefly lists the main categories and what types of treatment they are used for. It is important to understand that whilst heart medications can reduce the risk of having a first or repeat heart attack, you should always look for the underlying causes, with a view to changing your lifestyle if this is a causative factor. You should also make sure that any medication is taken strictly according to the instructions, as directed by your Physician. Categories of Drugs used to treat CHD include:
- ACE Inhibitors
- Aspirin
- Beta Blockers
- Blood Cholesterol Lowering (LDL)
- Calcium Channel Blockers
- Digitalis
- Diuretics
- Nitrates
- Thrombolytic Agents
ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor
This type of drug stops the narrowing of the blood vessels by inhibiting the production of a chemical that causes the condition. This makes it a suitable choice for the control of high blood pressure and also where there has been damage to the heart muscle. Following a heart attack, it may be prescribed to improve the circulation and help the heart to pump blood. It is also used for persons with heart failure, a condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to supply the body’s needs.
An example of this type of drug is Perindopril, which is commonly available under the brand name Aceon.
You can find a review of this medication here: Aceon
Aspirin
This is a commonly available non-prescription medicine that has been shown to lower the risk of a heart attack, especially for patients who have previously suffered from one. It can also assist in keeping the arteries open after heart bypass or similar artery-opening operations such as coronary angioplasty. However Aspirin does have associated risks, and so is not recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent heart attacks in otherwise healthy individuals.
Beta Blocker
This works by reducing nerve impulses to the heart and blood vessels. This slows down the heart rate, and makes it beat with less contracting force, so blood pressure drops and the heart works less hard. It is used to lower high blood pressure, treat chest pain, and to prevent a repeat heart attack.
An example of this type of drug is Metoprolol, which is commonly available under the brand name Toprol-XL. You can find a review of this medication here: Toprol-XL
Blood cholesterol-lowering (LDL)
There are different types of Blood Cholesterol medicine
- lipid- and cholesterol-modifying medicine
- This reduces triglycerides and increases cholesterol carried in high density lipoprotein (HDL) in the blood. HDL cholesterol is sometimes called “good” cholesterol because higher concentrations of HDL cholesterol in the blood are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. The decrease in triglycerides is thought to be due in part to reduced release of triglycerides from fat tissue in the body.
- An example of this type of drug is Gemfibrozil which is commonly available under the brand name Lopid
- Statins
- This type successfully decreases the levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood (by up to 60%). This is due to the inhibiting of an enzyme in the body, HMG-CoA Reductase, which controls the rate of cholesterol production by the body itself. They also allow the liver to increase it’s natural ability to remove the LDL Cholesterol from the blood.
- There are currently five statin drugs on the market in the United States: lovastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, fluvastatin, and atorvastatin
Calcium Channel Blocker
Has the effect of relaxing the blood vessels, and is used for the treatment of high blood pressure and chest pain. The cells of the heart contract in order to pump blood into the arteries. This requires calcium which passes into the cells via tiny ‘channels’. Calcium-channel blockers reduce the amount of calcium that goes into these muscle cells, causing them to relax. The effect widens the arteries which helps to lower the blood pressure.
An example of this type of drug is Verapamil, which is also commonly available under the brand name Verapamil.
Digitalis
makes the heart contract harder and is used when the heart’s pumping function has been weakened; it also slows some fast heart rhythms.
An example of this type of drug is Digoxin which is commonly available under the brand name Lanoxin.
Diuretic
Diuretics decrease the fluid level in the body and are used to treat high blood pressure. They are often referred to as “water pills.” because they work by increasing the amount of fluid and salt that is passed in the urine. This has some effect on reducing the fluid in the circulation which reduces blood pressure. They may also have a ‘relaxing’ effect on the blood vessels which reduces the pressure within the blood vessels. Only a low dose of a diuretic is needed to treat high blood pressure. Therefore, the diuretic effect is not particularly noticeable.
An example of this type of drug is Losartan used in combination with Hydrochlorothiazide, which is commonly available under the brand name Hyzaar. You can find a review of this medication here: Hyzaar
Nitrates (including nitroglycerine)
An angina pain develops if part of the heart muscle does not get as much blood and oxygen as it needs. (Blood flow to heart muscle is restricted because the coronary arteries are narrowed.) Nitrates mainly work by relaxing the blood vessels in the body. This causes them to dilate (widen) – Vasodilation. This then makes it easier for the heart to pump blood and reduces the ‘strain’ on the heart. This means the heart muscle does not need as much blood and oxygen supply.
An example of this type of drug is Prazosin which is commonly available under the brand name Minipress. You can find a review of this medication here: Minipress
Thrombolytic agents
These are also called “clot busting drugs,” they are given during a heart attack to break up a blood clot in a coronary artery in order to restore blood flow.
An example of this type of drug is Clopidogrel Bisulfate, which is commonly available under the brand name Plavix.
You can find a review of this medication here:
Plavix
As with all types of drugs, heart drugs can cause side effects. If side effects occur, report them to your doctor. Often, a change in the dose or type of a medication, or the use of a combination of drugs can reduce or eliminate the side effect.