2023-10-25 13:07:19
Fame and money do not protect once morest illness and death. Star musicians Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson died comparatively young of heart failure, as did the actress Carrie Fischer, who became famous as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. The heart of the footballer of the century Diego Maradona, overweight and pumped full of drugs, also stopped.
Other stars like Antonio Banderas have escaped death once more and are drawing conclusions from the frightening experience. The actor reported that he no longer smokes and eats healthier since his heart attack. Such behavioral changes can save lives. This is proven by a new study by the Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium under the leadership of the Department of Cardiology in the University Heart and Vascular Center at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). The study analyzed data from 1.5 million people from 34 countries in eight geographic regions from the Americas in the west to Asia and Australia in the east. Most important result: The five classic risk factors of overweight, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, smoking and diabetes mellitus are directly linked to more than half of all cardiovascular diseases worldwide (coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke). The most dangerous thing is increased blood pressure.
Risk #1: increased systolic blood pressure
Risk and illness, as patients like Antonio Banderas prove, are not a permanent fate. “The five classic risk factors examined are in principle modifiable and therefore accessible for preventive measures,” emphasizes private lecturer Dr. Christina Magnussen from the Cardiology Clinic at UKE. “So far there have been contradictory study results as to what proportion of cardiovascular diseases is actually explained by these risk factors,” says the first author of the global study. It is now clear that elevated systolic blood pressure poses the greatest risk. “We should pay particular attention to the treatment of patients with elevated blood pressure in order to avoid cardiovascular diseases as much as possible,” said the scientist.
Cardiovascular diseases cannot always be traced back to the five risk factors examined. Professor Helmut Peter, head of the Falkenried outpatient clinic and clinic for psychotherapy in Hamburg, points out that anxiety disorders, depression and overwork can also make the heart sick. For example, a WHO study found that working more than 55 hours a week significantly increases the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. According to Peter, around a third of all people suffer from high blood pressure. “In 85 percent of these patients, there are no physical causes.” In addition, behavioral changes in general and in relation to avoiding cardiovascular risks are difficult to implement. “There is a lack of a consistent treatment approach. To date, there are too few treatment options that bring together the mind, lifestyle and body.”
Overwork makes the heart sick
Other individual risks might easily be avoided. This includes, for example, poor oral hygiene. Dr. Norman Mangner, senior physician in the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the Heart Center of the Dresden University Hospital, emphasizes that bacterial infection on teeth and gums can not only lead to kidney problems, joint pain and headaches, but also to heart problems. Everything in the body is connected. Bacteria in the mouth might spread throughout the body. “If you have gingivitis, or periodontitis, due to poorly cared for teeth, it is possible that the bacterial accumulation on the tooth root is washed into the bloodstream via the blood vessels and settles on the heart valves,” warns Mangner.
It’s not just bacteria in the mouth that can affect the heart. The subject of many research projects, for example, is the interaction between the heart and intestinal bacteria, the microbiome. “But this is all still preclinical research. To date, there is no standardized diagnosis, no diagnostic criteria, no proven therapy – but a lot of charlatanism,” says Dr. Boris Leithäuser, specialist in cardiology and psychocardiology in Hamburg, should be considered. There are laboratories that offer microbiome analysis, and there are doctors and ecotrophologists who believe they can derive diagnoses or therapeutic consequences from this. “No reputable clinical scientist will support this at this point,” emphasizes Leithäuser. But he is confident that “we will get the data for necessary diagnostic and therapeutic steps in the future.”
Research on the microbiome and metabolome
Further research is being carried out for this. The Swedish bioinformatician Dr. Sofia Forslund, who heads the “Host-Microbiome Factors in Cardiovascular Diseases” working group at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) in Berlin, has published a study in which more than 2,000 patients were examined. The aim was to investigate the connections between metagenome (all genetic information of all microorganisms that colonize the intestine), metabolome (all molecules involved in metabolism) and cardiovascular diseases. According to Forslund, the results indicate “that the microbiome and the metabolome change long before the obvious onset of cardiovascular disease, namely in the preliminary stages of a metabolic disease.”
But many abnormalities are not specific to cardiovascular diseases. Forslund is realistic regarding the limitations of her current work: “Since it is a cross-sectional study, we cannot prove causality, but only show associations.” So the only current way to prevent heart attack and stroke is to work less, live healthier and regularly to brush your teeth.
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