Cardiovascular Disease: Leading Cause of Death Worldwide

A silent health crisis is prevalent in the US and the world as we tend to forget the number one killer is heart disease in which many have no warning signs before a cardiovascular event or heart attack.

• Do you know your cardiovascular disease risk?
• Do you know if you fall into the category of optimal cardiometabolic health?
• Are you doing enough to prevent cardiovascular disease?

A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology entitled “Trends and Disparities in Cardiometabolic Health Among U.S. Adults, 1999-2018,” revealed approximately 93% of people in the US have poor cardiovascular health. This blog post is a summary of the findings of this study and what you can do to improve your cardiovascular health.

What is Cardiometabolic Health?

Cardiovascular disease is a group of conditions affecting the blood vessels and heart, most of which can be prevented. Cardiometabolic health is an umbrella term that refers to the following spectrum of risk factors:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Elevated fasting blood sugar (insulin resistance)
• Abdominal adiposity (waistline >35 inches for women, >40 inch waist circumference for men)
• Elevated triglycerides and dyslipidemia (cholesterol imbalance, triglycerides over 100)

There are many well established modifiable risk factors contributing to your cardiometabolic risk. The first step to prevention is knowing your risk and making the proper lifestyle changes.

The Study: Optimal Cardiometabolic Health Rates are Dropping

To estimate the prevalence of optimal cardiometabolic health in the US, researchers analyzed the following health metrics of 55,081 adults over a twenty-year period, 1999 to 2018, from the 10 most recent cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey:

• Adiposity
• Blood glucose
• Blood lipids
• Blood pressure
• Absence of prior cardiovascular disease events

The following metrics were used to establish optimal cardiometabolic health:

Only 6.8% of US adults were found to have optimal cardiometabolic health, equating to fewer than 1 in 14 adults.

There has been a steady decline in optimal cardiometabolic health over time from 8.4% in 2004 and 7.7% in 2000.  Other findings of this study include:

• The largest declines from optimal to suboptimal levels over time were for blood glucose and adiposity levels
  • Optimal adiposity levels decreased from 34% to 24%
  • Optimal glucose levels decreased from 59% to 37%
  • Poor levels of adiposity increased from 48% to 62% and poor levels of glucose levels increased from 9% to 14%
• Optimal blood pressure levels decreased from 40% to 36%.
  • Poor BP levels remained stable
• Optimal blood lipid levels improved from 30% to 37%.
  • Poor lipid levels decreased from 29% to 15%
• Prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased from 36% to 47%; this was higher among adults 65 and over vs those aged 20-34 years.
• Men, Mexican Americans, Blacks, older adults, and adults with lower education were more likely to have lower counts of optimal status

Know Your Cardiometabolic Health Status

Knowing your cardiometabolic health status is integral to preventing disease and improving your health. Many patients seeing a cardiologist for the first time have already suffered a cardiovascular event. Assessing cardiac markers and our genetic makeup can help us make better lifestyle and dietary choices.

Having a baseline status of your body composition, most importantly abdominal adiposity, is an important consideration in assessing cardiovascular risk. At RMC, a device called “InBody” is available for testing accurate metrics of weight, BMI, abdominal fat, water weight, percent body fat and muscle mass.

An in-depth blood test called the Cardio IQ Panel done via Quest labs assesses various cardiovascular markers to give a more accurate and broader picture of your individual risk. Cardio IQ can be reviewed in much more detail via the following blogs: Cardiovascular Disease Uncovered Beyond the Lipid Panel Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.

Another preventive test to aid in further assessing your cardiac risk is the Coronary Calcium Scan, a non-invasive CT imaging study showing the amount of calcification in your arteries. You can read more in depth about the calcium scan here.

Take preventative measures now to improve your cardiometabolic health

Most cardiovascular diseases are preventable. Identifying and treating nutritional deficiencies, underlying inflammation and toxic burden is important when considering cardiometabolic health. The most important modifiable factors to improve your cardiometabolic health are:

• Increasing physical activity
• Getting adequate sleep
• Maintaining healthy weight
• Managing stress
• Eating a whole foods diet
• Alcohol and tobacco cessation

Decreasing abdominal adiposity is important in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Intermittent fasting is an eating style that has demonstrated profound effects including weight loss, blood sugar control, reduction of inflammation, heart disease and cholesterol levels. Losing and keeping weight off is challenging for many. The hormone peptide, Semaglutide, has shown weight reduction up to 20% and shows promise as an adjuvant in decreasing cardiovascular disease. Semaglutide with intermittent fasting may offer even greater weight loss and health benefits.

A game-changing non-surgical body contouring device called Emsculpt Neo is offered at RMC, simultaneously destroying fat cells and stimulating muscles. After just four sessions, patients can experience up to 30% permanent fat reduction, 25% increase in muscle mass, and a 2.2-inch reduction in circumference.  It is equivalent of doing 20,000 sit-ups in ½ hour!  Results are amazing.

Conclusion

The study reviewed brings awareness to the silent health crisis as a staggeringly high, 93.2% of US adults were found to have suboptimal cardiometabolic health in 2018. This percentage has increased over the past two decades, stressing the importance of prevention strategies going beyond just looking at and treating cholesterol levels.

The good news is you have control in preventing cardiovascular disease by initiating simple healthy changes which can help you achieve optimal cardiometabolic health and prevent adverse outcomes.

Have an awesome day!   Dr D

1.https://inbodyusa.com/

2.https://regenerativemc.com/semaglutide/

3.https://regenerativemc.com/intermittent-fasting

4.https://regenerativemc.com/emsculpt-neo/