Health, Heart Disease, and Risk Factors
Health and Quality of Life
In the mid-twentieth century, the WHO defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. The health of a person cannot be defined only in terms of fitness; it is necessary to consider mental health. The idea of health should not merely be the absence of disease but should be more ambitious and include positive elements. Quality of life is often used to refer to this way of understanding health.
What Determines Health?
- Lifestyle: Individual behaviors that impact health.
- Environmental: Social factors like access to healthcare and environmental factors.
- Genetic: Hereditary information contained in genes.
What is a Stroke?
The heart muscle, called the myocardium, gets oxygen and nutrients through the blood that comes through the coronary arteries. If the block is only partial and reduces blood flow to an area of the heart, there is a strong chest pain called angina. Myocardial infarction is also called a heart attack.
Symptoms of a Heart Attack
Serious heart attacks start as a pain in the center of the chest that lasts several minutes or tends to recur. The pain may radiate to the arms, left shoulder, elbow, jaw, or back. There may also be difficulty breathing, vomiting, dizziness, cold sweat, and pallor.
Why Did it Happen?
Heart attacks are caused by the blockage of one of the branches of the coronary artery. The most common cause is the deposition of lipids in the inner lining of arteries. As a result, the diameter of the artery becomes smaller, and its wall becomes rough and stiff. Passing the blood through the rough spots can form blood clots that clog vessels. So, a stroke is also called a coronary thrombosis. Blood flows more slowly, or vessels have lost their elasticity. The formation of a thrombus in an artery in the brain is called a cerebrovascular accident (CVA).
Risk Factors
A risk factor is any fact that increases the probability of an event.
Different Ways of Expressing Risk
- Referring to the total population: For example, each year 6,300 people die in Spain because of passive smoking.
- Referring to a different time period: For example, 84 million people will die from cancer in the next 10 years.
- Referring to a sector of the population: For example, 5,000 women die each year in Spain as a result of breast cancer.
Risk Factors for CVD
Epidemiology is the branch of medicine that studies the distribution and causes of disease and is the basis of preventive medicine.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a lipid necessary for the body to build cell membranes. When there is excess cholesterol in the plasma, it is deposited on the inner walls of arteries, causing blood clots.
High Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is a measure that depends on the elasticity of the artery wall. It is composed of two figures: maximum and minimum. When the values are higher than normal, it means that the arteries are less elastic. On these occasions, the heart must work harder for blood to reach every cell in the body and weakens over time. The heart beats slower, and the blood tends to clot.
Age, sex, etc., are often referred to as “risk markers.”
Diabetes
People with diabetes often suffer from hyperglycemia, which means a blood glucose level above normal. Diabetes accelerates the process of hardening of the arteries, causing narrowing.
Smoking
Snuff smoke contains many substances that damage the lungs, blood vessels, and heart. It also increases blood pressure, which makes the heart work harder and constricts the arteries.
Physical inactivity, obesity, and stress are risk factors that act indirectly by promoting other risk factors like hypertension or high cholesterol.
EKG
Heart contraction is initiated by electric shocks that are generated automatically in a group of muscle cells called the pacemaker. The ECG is a graphic record of the electrical activity of the heart. During each cardiac cycle of pumping and filling, a familiar pattern of electrical changes takes place that accurately reflects the functioning of the heart.
Blood Pressure Measurement
- The maximum pressure: is the maximum pressure in the artery wall when the heart contracts and pushes blood throughout the body.
- The minimum pressure: is the minimum pressure in the artery wall at the time that the heart is relaxed.
Beware of Fat
- All fats are high energy: One gram of fat provides twice the energy that one gram of carbohydrate or protein.
- Saturated fats: are only good for energy.
- Unsaturated fats: In addition to providing energy, they can be used for the synthesis of hormones, etc.
Main components of a balanced diet: carbohydrates (55%), lipids (30%), protein (15%), vitamins, and minerals.
The Mediterranean Diet
The base of the food is the carbohydrates produced by fruits and vegetables, cereals and cereal products, and legumes. The proteins come from fish over meat. The main fat used is olive oil.
Functional Foods
- Vitamins, minerals, fiber, and essential fatty acids: are found naturally in foods.
- Probiotic bacteria: are those that occur naturally in our digestive system and aid in digestion and absorption of nutrients.
The Benefits of Physical Activity
Physical activity is beneficial to the body because it: strengthens the heart, muscles, and bones; increases the supply of oxygen to the body; helps you lose weight and reduces stress; lowers blood pressure and the amount of sugar and lipids in the blood; and improves blood circulation. (Physical activity lowers LDL cholesterol and promotes HDL).
A Great Risk Factor
Snuff smoke is a mixture of:
- Nicotine: is a drug that contracts and hardens the arteries, raising blood pressure.
- Carbon monoxide: is a toxic gas that reduces the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen.
- Tar: is a viscous mixture that accumulates in the lungs.
There is a strong relationship between lung cancer and smoking. There is evidence that quitting smoking reduces the chance of developing it.