Week beginning 20th AprilCardiovascular Disease
Starter questions:
1. What causes a deficiency disease?
2. Give one example of a deficiency disease.
3. Give an example of a lifestyle factor that is linked to disease.
4. Challenge: which lifestyle factor do you think is most significant in terms of health and disease? Justify your answer
This was covered in the first two lessons of the topic
Learning objectives
• Describe how BMI and waist: hip calculations are used to measure obesity
• Describe how smoking and obesity correlate with cardiovascular disease
• Compare and evaluate some different treatments for cardiovascular disease, including medication, surgery and lifestyle changes
What is cardiovascular disease?
Cardiovascular disease is a result of the circulatory system functioning poorly. One sign of this is high blood pressure, which can lead to heart pain or even a heart attack.
What can cause cardiovascular disease?
- Smoking
- Obesity – when large amounts of fat are formed under the skin and around the organs e.g. heart and kidneys
• Too much fat on the body can increase the risk of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease
• C.V.D. is the result of the circulatory system functioning poorly
• Signs of C.V.D.: high blood pressure, heart attack
There are two ways of measuring obesity
• BMI – commonly used in medicine to assess obesity levels, however muscle weighs more than fat so it is not accurate in measuring athlete BMI
• Waist:hip ratio – gives a better measure of the amount of abdominal fat. Research shows that if more body fat is distributed around the abdomen (rathe than spread across the body) there are more health risks.
• In an exam you will be expected to be able to calculate BMI and waist:hipratio, compare BMI and waist:hip results for different people, suggest ways in which BMI or waist:hip ratio could be improved for health, and critique the two different measures
Calculate the BMI:
Mass (kg) Height (m) Height2 BMI
100 1.5
70 1.8
80 1.6
70 1.6
65 1.4
Very common exam mistake –forgetting to square the height!!!
Answers
Mass (kg) Height (m) Height2 BMI
100 1.5 2.25 44.4
70 1.8 3.24 21.6
80 1.6 2.56 31.25
70 1.6 2.56 27.34
65 1.4 1.96 33.16
Which BMI category are these people in?
Waist:hip calculations
The fat more closely linked to CVD is abdominal fat. Dividing waist measurement by hip measurement to get a waist to hip ratio gives us a better method of measuring abdominal fat
Impact of smoking on obesity
Treatments for cardiovascular diseaseRead through information provided about different treatments for cardiovascular disease. There are thee categories of treatments:
1. Medication, such as beta-blockers or blood-thinning medicines (anticoagulants)2. Surgical procedures, such as bypass or stent surgery3. Lifestyle changes, such as giving up smoking, increasing exercise and improving
diet.
Summarise the key points in your book or on the worksheet – don’t need to copy every thing down
Challenge: summarise your findings as simple guidance for doctors about how to decide which treatment should be used with patients suffering different kinds of cardiovascular disease.
Coronary bypass surgery
Physical activity Give up smoking
Stents
Balanced diet
Treatments for
cardiovascular disease
Information sheets
Coronary bypass surgery• Coronary or heart bypass surgery can relieve chest pain. In the operation, your surgeon uses a blood vessel from your
leg, arm or chest to bypass a narrowed section of a coronary artery.
Why might I need bypass surgery?
• If you’ve been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or angina (chest pain), your doctor might suggest a bypass operation to help improve the blood supply to your heart muscle. This will help to relieve angina symptoms and improve your quality of life.
During the surgery:
Your arteries get narrowed when fatty deposits build up on the inner walls of your arteries. The aim of coronary bypass surgery is to bypass – or ‘get around’ - the narrowed sections of your coronary arteries.
• The surgeon does this by inserting a blood vessel between the aorta (the main blood vessel leaving the heart) and a point along the coronary artery, past the narrowed area.
• Blood vessels such as a vein from your legs and sometimes an artery from your arms are used for grafts. You can have one graft, but it’s more common to have two, three or four (often called double, triple or quadruple bypasses).
The benefits
Most people get excellent relief from angina and improved quality of life.
The risks
The risks are different from person to person, depending on the severity of heart disease, type of operation, age, and current state of health.
Stents (coronary angioplasty)• Your coronary arteries play a vital role in keeping your heart healthy. But in some people, the coronary arteries can
become narrowed or blocked because fatty deposits have built up within the artery walls.
• Stents help to improve the blood supply to your heart muscle by widening narrowed coronary arteries and allowing blood to flow through again.
• Stents can help to relieve angina symptoms (chest pains) and is also used as an emergency treatment for people who've had a heart attack.
How does it work?
• Narrow blood vessels can be widened by inserting a small mesh tube (stent) at the narrowest part to hold it open
• A small balloon is used to widen the blood vessel while the stent is inserted, and is later removed, leaving the stent in place.
How successful is the procedure?
• In most cases the blood flow through the artery is improved. Many people find that their symptoms get better and they’re able to do more.
• Sometimes the artery can become narrowed again, causing angina to return. But advances in stent technology mean that the risk of this happening is getting lower. Many people are now symptom-free for a long time.
• A small number of people have complications. The risk varies depending on your overall health and your individual heart condition.
Be more physically active
• Combining a healthy diet with regular exercise is the best way of maintaining a healthy weight. Having a healthy weight reduces your chances of developing high blood pressure.
• Regular exercise will make your heart and blood circulatory system more efficient, lower your cholesterol level, and also keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.
• Keep to a healthy weight
• Your GP or practice nurse can tell you what your ideal weight is in relation to your height and build. Alternatively, find out what your body mass index (BMI) is by using a BMI calculator.
Give up smoking
• If you smoke, giving up will reduce your risk of developing CHD. Smoking is a major risk factor for developing atherosclerosis (furring of the arteries). It also causes the majority of cases of coronary thrombosis in people under the age of 50.
• Research has shown you are up to four times more likely to successfully give up smoking if you use NHS support together with stop-smoking medicines, such as patches or gum.
Eat a healthy, balanced diet• A low-fat, high-fibre diet is recommended, which should include plenty of fresh fruit
and vegetables (five portions a day) and whole grains.
• You should limit the amount of salt you eat to no more than 6g (a teaspoonful) a day, as too much salt will increase your blood pressure.
• There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. You should avoid food containing saturated fats, because these will increase the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood.
• Foods high in saturated fat include: meat pies, sausages and fatty cuts of meat, butter, ghee – a type of butter often used in Indian cooking, lard, cream, hard cheese, cakes and biscuits, foods that contain coconut or palm oil
• However, a balanced diet should still include unsaturated fats, which have been shown to increase levels of good cholesterol and help reduce any blockage in your arteries.
• Foods high in unsaturated fat include: oily fish, avocados, nuts and seeds, sunflower, rapeseed, olive and vegetable oils
• You should also try to avoid too much sugar in your diet, as this can increase your chances of developing diabetes, which is proven to dramatically increase your chances of developing CVD.
