So, what is a heart attack?

A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that brings oxygen to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off completely. This is a serious medical emergency because your heart needs oxygen to survive, and you need your heart to survive. The process leading up to a heart attack goes like this:[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

What are heart attack risk factors?

Heart attack risk factors are made up of the usual culprits: unhealthy diet, inactivity, smoking, and stress. There are, however, some risk factors that you can’t change. These are:

• Age: The risk of having a heart attack increases when a man is 45 and a woman is over 55.
• Sex: Men are at greater risk for heart attack than women. They tend to have attacks earlier in life. Women who enter menopause early may be at greater risk for heart disease and premature death.
• Heredity: Children of parents with heart disease are more likely to develop it themselves. There are also racial differences to account for heart attack risk factors. For instance, African Americans have more instances of high blood pressure than Caucasians and that puts them at greater risk of heart disease.

Prevention of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease can never start too early. It is important to know all of your risk factors so that you can work closely with your doctor to address them and work towards prevention.

Recovery & Prevention

If you have had a heart attack and are now in the recovery stage the goal is to restore physical activity through exercise and reduce the risk of another heart attack through lifestyle change. This generally includes changing your diet to focus on heart healthy foods, exercising, and developing coping mechanisms to help you shoulder the emotional stress that a heart attack can cause.

When it comes to maintaining the health of your heart, lifestyle choices play a significant role. Maintaining a healthy weight through smart eating and staying active are all proven to lower the risk of heart disease and heart attack. If you are over 50 and/or have a family history of heart attack, monitoring your blood pressure is a great preventative tactic. If you notice anything untoward, contact your healthcare provider. Plaque buildup around arteries can be detected through this kind of routine health monitoring and intervention can prevent a potential heart attack.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both sexes in the United States.² Years of research has shown that the disease doesn’t manifest the same, isn’t experienced the same, isn’t treated the same, nor are the effects on the body the same in men and women. For instance, it has long been known that low socioeconomic status is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but it has now been shown that disadvantaged women are actually at a greater risk for CVD than their male peers.³ Here are some of the other findings released over the past month:

Children and heart disease

An American Heart Association study has shown that delivering a baby preterm, or prematurely, before 37 weeks gives the mother a 40 percent increased risk of developing CVD.⁴ If they deliver before 32 weeks the risk of CVD doubled.⁴ In the journal Circulation it was shown that multiple pregnancies (successful or not) could increase a mother’s risk of developing atrial fibrillation—an irregular heart rhythm that increases the risk of stroke.⁵

There is a significant relationship between the number of children one has and the risk of CVD and stroke in both men and women. Having one child decreases risk because of a sort of “safety net” effect, while any more than that causes higher risk that the researchers attribute to potential economic stress. Further research also found that having a greater number of children could also be associated with a higher risk of diabetes in both of the sexes.⁶

Basic biological differences

UT Southwestern Medical Center has been engaged in a long term study on the differences between the sexes when it comes to their hearts. They have discovered a vast difference in the levels of many proteins. This made researchers realize that they had to account for these difference when diagnosing and treating men and women. Some key findings were that women:

• tend to have higher levels of fat hormones.

• tend to have higher levels of clotting proteins.

• tend to have lower levels of proteins that reflect unhealthy arteries.

• tend to have higher levels of certain markers of inflammation.⁷

Finally, for the first time, researchers pinpointed a type of heart fat linked to menopause and estrogen levels, which increases a woman’s risk for CVD.⁸

Action

Many of these studies concede that heart disease can be more difficult to diagnose in women—partly because of biology and partly because of the man-centric treatment and study to date. In every day practice, the omnipresent “eat healthy and exercise” is fundamental advice for maintaining a healthy heart. In addition to this regular care, a new national survey by Orlando Health found that most women should begin heart screenings at the age of 20 and not the popularly believed 30.⁹ Once you have been diagnosed with CVD, you will always have it, it is chronic but it is manageable. It is important that women ensure their doctor is familiar with the differences between men and women, and it is essential that the research moving forward take a gender-equal approach to its scientific inquiry.

Read a UT Southwester Medical study on the need to re-evaluate the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women:

1. http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170201/Cardiologist-reveals-13-facts-about-heart-disease-in-women.aspx [return]

2.  [return]

3. http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2016/12/14/jech-2016-207890 [return]

4. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/135/6/578 [return]

5. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/135/6/622 [return]

6. http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/having-more-children-could-increase-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease-for-both-parents-1.3272721 [return]

7.  [return]

8. http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/6/2/e004545 [return]

9. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170123094650.htm [return][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] ]]> https://biotricity-staging.dayonedevelopment.com/2017/02/02/heart-disease-stroke-linked-stress/ Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:00:46 +0000 https://biotricity.com/?p=3136

Stress and heart disease

Heart disease and the multitude of conditions that compose it make it one of the most lethal ailments worldwide. It is currently responsible for over 17.3 million deaths each year. ¹ Finding a concrete link between the brain and the heart may help researchers develop preventative treatments for those in danger of heart disease. Though scientists and doctors have known for years that stress affects the cardiovascular system, “stress” as a subjective feeling is difficult to quantify. Lead researcher Dr. Ahmed Tawakol explains:

“Our results provide a unique insight into how stress may lead to cardiovascular disease. This raises the possibility that reducing stress could produce benefits that extend beyond an improved sense of psychological wellbeing.”

Subjects with active amygdalae show an increase in inflammation in their arteries and an activation of bone marrow. The possible biological mechanism, the researchers suggest, involves the amygdalae signalling the bone marrow to produce excess white blood cells, which causes arteries to develop plaques and become inflamed—which can lead to heart attack, stroke, and CVD.

Post traumatic stress disorder

The researchers also included a small 13 patient sub-study where the participants had a history of PTSD. They underwent a psychological exam, a PET scan, and a measurement of C-reactive protein. Those who reported feeling high levels of stress also showed the highest levels of amygdala activity and inflammation in their arteries. These findings bolster the link between brain and heart in relation to stress induced cardiac events.

The research is enlightening and makes way for the future studies. The research was on a relatively small scale, and other possible contributions of the amygdalae on heart disease are possible. More research is needed for confirmation and to begin developing treatments.

[1] http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/ahamah-public/@wcm/@sop/@smd/documents/downloadable/ucm_480086.pdf [return]

Read Dr. Ahmad Tawakol’s work here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)31714-7/abstract

Read Science Daily’s thorough summary of the research here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170111213656.htm

Diabetes has been primarily thought of as a first world lifestyle disease, a result of eating an excess and sedentary habits. So how is India the diabetes capital of the world?
Dr. Mohan, author of Diabetes mellitus and its complications in India, explains that the phenomenon of a vastly underweight population plagued with diabetes has been his focus for over twenty years. In that time Mohan has discredited the myth that diabetes is linked to BMI and shows that it is instead linked to fat, and that it is visceral fat, the fat that surrounds internal organs like the liver, that is strongly associated with diabetes risk. ¹

Dr. Yajnik and companion studied themselves to prove the BMI fallacy.

The video is an overview of Mohan’s research which has come to explore the link between fetal malnutrition and how the fetus develops its fat storing and insulin tolerance capabilities. The results are particularly interesting because Mohan has been able to study participants and their offspring for going on three generations, during which time India has undergone major industrialization. Mohan admits that changes to diet and physical activity play a part in India’s struggle with diabetes but, as India is the fastest developing country, it can’t be ignored that processed foods and a less active lifestyle are only intensifying the greater health issue.

The implications of Dr. Mohan’s study are enlightening, but it doesn’t let first world countries off the hook—the exacerbating factor is still fat and malnutrition which means diet and activity are fundamental to making progress with the global spread of diabetes.

You can watch the New Face of Diabetes video below:

You can read Dr. Mohan’s study Diabetes mellitus and its complications in India

http://www.nature.com/nrendo/journal/v12/n6/abs/nrendo.2016.53.html

Murthy’s report, “Facing Addiction,” presents the latest facts on drug and alcohol abuse and its health impacts for the nation, it presents the barriers to treatment, and makes a case for a push for prevention. Despite the incredible numbers and the reality that addicts, like diabetics, represent more than half of the American people. Addiction is a treatable, and more importantly, preventable chronic disease.

“A person who begins drinking before the age of 15 has four times the chance of becoming addicted than someone who starts after 21,” Murthy said in an interview with the Washington Post.¹ Which is why prevention through youth programs, community outreach, and innovative new educational technology is so important. The call to action throughout the Surgeon General’s report and his interviews has been to enact a cultural change in the persistent negative beliefs surrounding addicts and drug abuse. There is a need to shift the perception of addiction to one of a chronic illness that requires compassion, treatment, and chronic care management.

You can view a video summary of the Surgeon General’s report below:

The full National Summit video can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD6_cSvniIg

And, you can read the report here:
https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/surgeon-generals-report.pdf

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/landmark-report-by-surgeon-general-calls-drug-crisis-a-moral-test-for-america/2016/11/16/4214bf2a-ac49-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html?utm_term=.91db05260c7d [return] ]]> https://biotricity-staging.dayonedevelopment.com/2016/12/28/wearable-reduce-sudden-cardiac-arrest/ Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:09:25 +0000 https://biotricity.com/?p=3031 BIOTRICITY[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Elation quickly turned to grief in September 2010 when Oregon high school football star Hayward Demison scored a touchdown, then immediately fell to the ground, dead from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).¹

When a young person dies during a sporting event, we can’t believe it. When we hear of marathon runners dropping dead from heart attacks, we’re stunned. Maybe it’s because most of these people are young. Perhaps we equate physical fitness with health. And that’s where we’re wrong.  

Physically fit doesn’t necessarily mean we’re protected against sudden health calamities. People who die from SCA either ignore the warning signs or never identify them to begin with. In young athletes, it’s typically undiagnosed arrhythmias that cause sudden cardiac arrest.  

Not long ago, there was little anyone could do to prevent a student-athlete dying on the field from SCA. Even with annual physical requirements for students who participate in sports, SCA still causes about 70 athlete deaths in the U.S each year, and over 300,000 total deaths.² 

Sudden cardiac arrest is different than a heart attack

Sudden cardiac arrest is not a heart attack, which happens because of blockages in the arteries that restrict or stop blood flow to the heart. SCA is due to electrical problems in the cardiovascular system that cause dangerously fast or slow heart rates.  

Not only young athletes are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Former heart attack victims are among the individuals most likely to die from SCA. According to an online article published in MediaPlanet: “While there are many causes of sudden cardiac arrest, including underlying heart rhythm disorders, one of the most common risk factors is a recent heart attack. The dead muscle from a heart attack can disrupt the heart’s natural electrical system and lead to SCA.”³  According to the same article, “more than 1.5 million Americans will have a heart attack this year,” and many of these people will be unaware of  further SCA risk or cardiac related problems that the heart attack might have induced.³ 

Cardiac testing can save lives 

A groundbreaking Italian study published by JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association), cite electrocardiogram (ECG) and echocardiogram as two simple tests that can save lives, with the ECG having “the potential to detect heart conditions that account for up to 60% of sudden deaths in young competitive athletes.” ⁴ From 1979 to 2004, a group of researchers in Italy studied 55 athletes to determine if cardiac testing could reduce the incidences of SCA.⁵ They found that it could. So, while the threat of sudden cardiac arrest is present, death from SCA can be prevented. In fact, this 25-year study determined that: Cardiac testing reduced deaths by an astounding 89 percent.⁵

Mobile cardiac monitoring is the solution of the future 

Overall, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the leading killer on the planet, “accounting for more than 17.3 million deaths per year, a number that is expected to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030,” according the American Heart Association.⁶ While mobile heart monitoring used to be cumbersome and was only prescribed to a patient presenting symptoms of CVD—which left out at-risk young athletes—modern medicine has advanced such that mobile monitoring can be practical and comfortable for all patients.  

A clinical-grade mobile monitoring device, like our own Bioflux, is a diagnostic ECG tool that could help detect arrhythmias that cause sudden cardiac arrests. Bioflux measures and monitors a patient’s ECG while they are on the go and can remotely transmit the medical data to a CMS-cleared monitoring center with certified cardiac technicians who interpret the patient data and send it to their attending physician. These mobile devices offer physicians access to essential patient data after that data has already been screened, which can speed up and improve the diagnostic process. With cardiac issues, time is of the essence, and Bioflux was created to allow a physician to diagnose a cardiac condition, advise appropriate preventative measures, and create a care regimen—all while the patient is free to live life as normally as possible. 

Wearable medical monitoring devices are a modern miracle that have the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year. 

Resources: 

[1] http://www.today.com/health/teen-athletes-sudden-deaths-spur-call-heart-screening-2D80555866  [return]

[2] http://www.sca-aware.org/about-sca  [return]

[3] http://www.futureofpersonalhealth.com/prevention-and-treatment/sudden-cardiac-arrest-its-not-a-heart-attack   [return]

[4] http://www.your-heart-health.com/en-US/heart-disease-facts/young-athletes/how-coaches-can-help.html   [return]

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17018804  [return]

[6] http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/ahamah-public/@wcm/@sop/@smd/documents/downloadable/ucm_480086.pdf  [return][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] ]]> https://biotricity-staging.dayonedevelopment.com/2016/12/23/prediabetic-review-cdcs-prediabetes-questionnaire/ Fri, 23 Dec 2016 15:00:31 +0000 https://biotricity.com/?p=3040 The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website, doihaveprediabetes.org, is an online risk test that assesses whether or not a participant is prediabetic, the survey is part of the CDC’s 2016 campaign against diabetes. ¹ It presents facts like: “1 in 3 American adults is prediabetic” and asks the patient a series of questions before suggesting a course of action. ¹ Paula Span, author of the book The New Old Age, discusses the pros and cons of diagnosing prediabetes in an online questionnaire in her recent New York Times article called You’re ‘Prediabetic’? Join the Club.

Span’s article focuses on the delicacies of notifying 80% of American’s over the age of 60 that they are likely to prediabetic and need to visit their doctor. The more medical take-away, is learning about prediabetes and that it is widespread.

“Prediabetes” didn’t exist 10 years ago and is, as Dr. Shahraz explains in the article, “defining something previously considered normal as a disease that requires attention, monitoring and treatment.” ² Being prediabetic is very common in people over the age of 60 because their pancreas naturally slows down and produces less insulin, leading the body to become more insulin resistant. ² The problem is that the CDC’s website will more often than not notify an individual that they are at-risk—i.e. labeling them sick, which isn’t psychologically, a good thing nor necessarily accurate.

According to the CDC, the online questionnaire is not a diagnosis tool but a place where the discussion can start and where the population can begin to learn more about the disease. The management solution for prediabetics, and even Type 2 diabetics, is the ever-repeated advice: make a lifestyle change that includes both healthy eating and exercise.

One doctor points out that the CDC, with this website, is attempting to “improve behavior with fear” and Dr. Shahraz adds that “these interventions are so generic and commonplace that we should recommend them to anyone, including healthy people.” ² Span’s article ultimately leads herself, and the reader, to the decision to simply continue living as healthy a lifestyle as possible as long as possible and rejects being labelled as “sick”.

Perhaps a criticism of the CDCs attempts at educating the public lies in the way their message is framed—lifestyle reminders are already omnipresent and yet ultimately, and in-part because they are over-broadcast, ineffective. The solution is not to present the same idea repeatedly but to deliver it in a way that simultaneously motivates and empowers individuals and doesn’t send them to the doctor with a new diagnosis.

You can take the online questionnaire for yourself here:

1. https://doihaveprediabetes.org/ [return]

You can also check out the original article by Paula Span:

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/health/youre-prediabetic-join-the-club.html [return] ]]> https://biotricity-staging.dayonedevelopment.com/2016/12/20/recent-research-finds-obesity-no-universal-cure/ Tue, 20 Dec 2016 17:23:40 +0000 https://biotricity.com/?post_type=newsroom&p=3001 There is intense debate about what types of diet are most effective for treating the overweight and obese: should they follow a high protein diet? a high carbohydrate diet? a high fat diet? a low-fat vegetarian diet? Over the course of several years, and several studies, Dr. Frank Sacks has found that no single diet will cure all obesity, and he has no idea why this is ¹.

In a recent New York Times article, reporter Gina Colata collected the research of Dr. Sacks and interviewed several obesity doctors who all came back with a similar response. According to one doctor in Colata’s article, s insisting that there is only one way to counter obesity is like saying that staying out of the sun will prevent all cancer. It’s just not true. The answer lies in discovering how many kinds of obesity there are, and for each patient, figuring out what kind they have and then working on a treatment. Obesity causes range from genetic disorders, to genetic inheritance of other disorders that can affect weight, to the use of a weight-gain causing drugs, to lifestyle issues.

Four of the case studies from New York Times article, image courtesy of New York Times.

The problem, Colata discovers, is that “obesity and its precursor—being overweight—are not one disease but instead, like cancer, they are many” ¹. In other words, two people can be the same weight, height, with the same ethnic origins and still, the same diet or exercise regimen- or drug will not work for both patients. This explains why finding a treatment that will work is so difficult and why results vary wildly. It can also help to explain why prevention efforts, on the part of patients before they find themselves in the doctor’s office, can often fail.

Colata’s article chronicles six stories from obesity patients who, with the help of obesity doctor’s, found treatments that worked—and many of them incorporated prescription drugs or a very strict lifestyle change.

You can read the original New York Times article by Colata here:

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/health/weight-loss-obesity.html?smid=re-share&_r=0 [return]

You can also read Dr. Sacks’ original research here:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804748#t=articleBackground

Ten Leading Causes of Death, 2015

¹ Graph courtesy of the CDC

This decrease in life expectancy cannot be specifically attributed to any one cause of death because that is simply too hard to quantify. The CDC research found that while the ten leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide) remained the same, they all experienced an incremental increase including a notable increase in heart disease (of 0.9%) and diabetes (of 1.9%) ¹. Also notably was the 1.7% decrease in loss of life to cancer, which the CDC attributes to medical advancements, and population education, in both cancer diagnosis and treatment. The next step may be to take the same initiatives and apply them countering obesity and diabetes in order to help prevent further decreased life expectancy due to heart disease.

Indeed, over the past 30 years, the number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes has increased from 5.5 million to 22 million, and the estimated number of people with undiagnosed or pre-diabetes is as many as 50% of Americans today ². The spread of obesity and diabetes has increased exponentially over the past few years, and if this has started effecting life expectancy, then we can project a continued to decline in length of life.

You can read the original research here:

1.https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db267.htm”_blank”>https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db267.htm [return]

Research on diabetes here:

The good news: research unveils that baby boomers born between 1945 and 1954 are the “stroke-healthiest generation.” The bad news: rate of stroke more than doubled in Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1974. The findings are based on a study that took place over a 20 year period in New Jersey, with a focus on a very mixed social demographic. Joel N. Swerdel, MS, MPH, the lead author explains, “the incidence of stroke has decreased significantly overall since 1950, due to the advancement of medicine.” However, he goes on to warn that, “we found that trend to be reversing in younger generations where obesity and diabetes are likely causing an increase in cardiovascular disease.” That means that though GenXers are twice as likely to have a stroke as their parents, the rate will only continue to rise in millennials and millenials’ children—unless significant change is made.

While the research did not involve causes (either good or bad), the researchers did contribute the upward trend to several factors including lack of adherence to prescribed treatments (prescriptions, lifestyle changes etc.), a significant increase in obesity, and the prevalence of diabetes throughout the US. “Diabetes has been on a continuous upswing over the last 40 years, and is particularly seen in the youngest generations,” notes Swerdel. Diabetes and obesity are direct risk-factors for CVD and stroke. Researchers also attributed some of the increase to advanced diagnostic technology because we are simply catching symptoms and potential strokes much earlier and more often. Still, the bad outweighs the good in this situation and the increased incidence of stroke in the youngest study group (aged 35-50) is alarming and merits further research.

These new findings could enable physicians to help patients of all ages avoid a stroke, but, and perhaps more importantly, it raises questions about the impact that early lifestyle choices can have on long-term health. Swerdel explains, “People, especially those under 50, need to realize that stroke does not just occur in the old, and the outcome can be much more debilitating than a heart attack—leaving you living for another 30 to 50 years with a physical disability.” This data is invaluable to cardiologists who are trying to explain to their younger, at-risk patients the need for significant lifestyle changes.

You can also check out the original research here:

http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/5/12/e004245