MEDICAL MATTERS...
WHICH IS WORSE FOR YOUR HEART: HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE OR CHOLESTEROL? HOW ABOUT BOTH TOGETHER??
Over the years we’ve published many Medical Matters features in this publica- tion about the potential damage that can be done to one’s heart, resulting in angi- na, heart disease and/or a full blown heart attack.
This time we present an updated version looking at the ‘bigger picture’, in light of the huge volume of fast food being con- sumed; the eye-opening statistics about obesity in both adults and children; and the fact (only released last month) that at least 26 takeaway/fast food restau- rants are being open on the UK’s High Streets every day – resulting in a 34 per cent increase in the number of take- aways between 2010 and 2018.
Frightening… but a fact of life, this frenetic lifestyle of everybody’s that prevents prop- er cooking and eating of fresh food. But what’s the famous saying: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating…”? That pudding is starting to cause major problems for the ol’ ticker for far too many people.
Everybody knows that hypertension – high blood pressure – is a risk to your health. And everybody knows also that high cholesterol doesn’t do you any favours either. The latter has received the most adverse publicity in recent times, and has resulted in the medical profession coming out with a raft of medication to help lower cholesterol… more about that later.
But what about the “double-whammy”: if you are suffering with both high blood pressure and high cholesterol? What is the connection between the two? Having one risk factor for heart disease means you need to be careful. Having two means you need to make some significant lifestyle changes.
IT ALL ADDS UP…
Scientists have found that when people have more than one risk factor, such as high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels, these factors work together to make the risk of heart disease much worse.
Even if your cholesterol and blood pressure levels are only mildly elevated, when they
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are both present in your body they can inter- act with each other to more quickly damage your blood vessels and your heart.
If not
controlled, they eventually set the stage for heart attack and stroke, as well as other problems such as kidney malfunction and vision loss.
If you’re diagnosed with high cholesterol, it means that the level of cholesterol in your blood is higher than what is believed to be healthy. Cholesterol is a type of fatty sub- stance that your body uses to make certain hormones, produce vitamin D, and build healthy cells. We manufacture some of it in our bodies and get some of it from the foods we eat.
Too much cholesterol in your blood, though, may increase risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke. The con- cern is that if your cholesterol is high, the excess oily stuff will stick to the walls of your arteries. Over time, this excess can create a fatty buildup, much like dirt and grime can build up inside a garden hose. The fatty substance eventually hardens, forming a type of inflexible plaque that damages the arteries. They become stiff and narrowed, and your blood no longer flows through them as easily as it once did.
The ultimate danger is that your arteries will become so narrowed that a blood clot will block blood flow, causing a severe car- diovascular event.
You may be well aware that there are “good” and “bad” types of cholesterol: the goodies are high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and the baddies are low-density lipoproteins (LDL). These are found vari- ously in the foods we eat, and also are manufactured within the body. The number crunching we’ll leave to the medical profes- sionals, who will advise you where you are on the cholesterol ‘league table’.
We say this because a report issued by one insurance company said that some jobs and their associated lifestyles have been linked to higher levels of cholesterol, and amongst the various professions examined, taxi drivers – with their seden- tary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits – were found to have amongst the highest cholesterol levels on average. Surprise, surprise.
As to what causes high cholesterol levels, there are a number of factors (which col- lectively are referred to as “confounders” as opposed to causes): • Age • Gender • Smoking • Basic measures of alcohol consumption • Physical leisure activity (lack of) • Obesity • Type of job = stress levels
NO KIDDING
OK – tell us something we didn’t know. Well, how about this for number-crunching, courtesy of a recent study published in the Journal of Hypertension: • Men with the highest total cholesterol had a 23 per cent increased risk of devel- oping hypertension compared to those with the lowest total cholesterol.
• Men who had the highest levels of total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol had a 39 per cent increased risk of developing hypertension.
• Men who had the most unhealthy ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol had a 54 per cent increased risk of develop- ing hypertension.
• Men who had the highest levels of HDL cholesterol had a 32 per cent lower risk of developing hypertension.
Interestingly, the results were very much on a par when the study looked at women in similar circumstances.
Now you can start to see the link between the two red-flag elements within your sys- tem. If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood cholesterol, you may already be tak- ing medications to control it, and you may have made some lifestyle changes to help lower your cholesterol levels naturally.
Meanwhile, it’s important to keep an eye on your blood pressure. People living with high blood cholesterol often end up deal- ing with high blood pressure as well. You will already know that high blood pressure is when “the force of your blood pushing against the wall of your blood vessels is consistently too high.”
The figures as regards healthy blood pres- sure readings are well known: for most of (us!) youngsters the ideal reading is 120/80.
MAY 2019
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