New York.(The Conversation) Most people know that risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol, and being overweight. The people who do have a heart attack, however, do not have any of these traditional risk factors.
According to research, conditions such as arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis are also risk factors for heart disease. All of us, however, can reduce our risk of getting heart disease and improve our quality of life by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease while rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by pain in the joints of the bones of the body. In fact, some researchers refer to heart disease as a disease of the arteries.
Scientists sometimes refer to this as the inflammation of atherosclerotic heart disease (ASCVD). ASCVD can lead to a heart attack, where the heart does not get enough blood supply. To understand why ASCVD is a terrible condition, we need to consider how this process begins. The first step in the emergence of atherosclerosis is thought to be some form of injury to the ‘endothelium’. Endothelial is a layer of cells that line the arteries.
The toxins in cigarettes can also damage the lining of the arteries and cause this early injury. People who suffer from chronic inflammatory conditions in the arteries are at an increased risk of heart disease. A heart attack occurs when plaque in a heart artery becomes unstable. This can cause the plaque to rupture, causing a clot to form in the artery and cut off the blood supply to the heart muscle. One way to measure inflammation in the body.
One way of doing this is with a blood test called ‘high-sensitivity C-reactive protein’ (hs-CRP). People who have high levels of both LDL cholesterol and hs-CRP have the highest risk of heart disease, according to several studies. A large clinical trial called ‘CANTOS’ treated patients who had had a heart attack and had high levels of hs-CRP. For this, a drug called canakinumab was used.
Use of this drug reduced the level of hs-CRP. Unfortunately, the risk of infection also increased in the group receiving the drug. The use of this drug does not mean that we are going to start using canakinumab for the treatment of ASCVD anytime soon. However, this study was considered important because it supported the hypothesis that inflammation plays an important role in ASCVD, and that targeting inflammation may be useful for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
By knowing the risk factors for ASCVD, we can better identify patients who are at risk for heart attack and stroke. Inflammation can also be reduced by making lifestyle changes. Toxins in cigarettes cause damage to the body. High levels of cholesterol in the blood and a diet rich in ultra-processed foods can also cause inflammation in our arteries. Exercise also lowers the level of inflammation in the body. There is also a risk of heart diseases due to stress, so we can reduce this risk by avoiding stress.
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