February is Heart Month, an awareness event created to make people aware how important it is to look after your heart’s health and give people advice on lifestyle changes that can improve this.
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease (also referred to as CVD) is a general term for health conditions that affect the heart or blood vessels. There are many different forms of CVD, however the most common are coronary heart disease, strokes and transient ischaemic attacks (a “mini stroke”), peripheral arterial disease and aortic disease.
In the UK someone dies from a heart or circulatory condition every three minutes with CVD being one of the lead causes of premature deaths in England. Approximately 7 million people in the UK are living with some form of cardiovascular disease.
Risk Factors
While there is no known cause of CVD, there are many factors that increase your likelihood of developing it. These risk factors include:
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Inactivity
- Being overweight or obese
- Alcohol consumption
- Eating an unhealthy diet
These risk factors can lead to your blood vessels being damaged or becoming narrower which in turn can cause blood clots. Your risk is also increased as you get older or if you have a family history with CVD. You are considered to have a family history of CVD is you have a parent or sibling who experienced an angina or heart attack before the age of 60.
How to lower your risk
The following lifestyle changes can lower your risk of CVD and reduce the chance of it getting worse if you already have CVD:
- Stop smoking, limit your alcohol intake or stop drinking it entirely (try to exceed the recommended limit of 14 units a week)
- Exercise regularly (the recommended amount is 150 minutes per week of moderate activity)
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Have a balanced diet (limiting your intake or saturated fats, salt and sugar while having plenty of fibre, wholegrain foods, fruit and vegetables)
- Speak to your GP regarding medications you can take if you are particularly high risk due to high cholesterol
CPR
Each year over 30,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK. Less than one in every ten who suffer a cardiac arrest survive. Giving CPR and using a defibrillator can more than double the person’s chance of survival.
For Heart Month, the British Heart Foundation are encouraging people to learn CPR. As carers, this is also covered in our training. If you feel like you need a refresher, the British Heart Foundation provide a free, interactive training course on their website!
If you’re interested please visit https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/learn-cpr-in-15-minutes
