Don’t go breaking your heart

Therearewaystoreducethe risk of disease affecting your body’smostvitalorgan

THE HEART is a remarkable organ. It beats approximately 100,000 times a day, 35 million times a year — and at least three billion times over your lifetime if you live to the age of 80.

Given that workload, it’s perhaps surprising that it doesn’t go wrong more often.

We’ve made real progress over the pastfewdecades.Deathratesfromcardiovascular disease among the under-75s — what is called premature mortality — have fallen significantly since the 1970s.

New techniques and medication are continuing to transform the way we treat the diseases that affect the heart.

Nonetheless, cardiovascular disease still takes a heavy toll, affecting seven million people in the UK, costing the NHS £6.8 billion every year and causing more than a quarter of all deaths.

So what can go wrong with the heart — and what can we do to prevent it happening?

The key cause of heart attacks is arteriosclerosis, the furring of the arteries which occurs when cholesterol and fatty deposits build up within artery walls, setting up an inflammatory reaction, a build-up of calcium and eventually blood clots which block the flow of blood.

Furring the arteries starts very early in life and, if unchecked, will get worse as you get older. But the process is not inevitable and, by tackling those factors which increase your risk, you can significantly bring down the likelihood of a heart attack.

The top risk factors include high bloodpressure,smoking,obesity,lackof exercise, high cholesterol levels, alcohol consumption and a poor diet.

Diabetes is a condition which also increases risk if not managed appropriately.

The NHS health check, offered to everyone between the age of 40 and 74, helps people identify these risks in their own lives, so they can change their lifestyle or take medication and so help prevent problems with their heart.

Just a modest reduction in systolic bloodpressure(measuredas10mmHg), for example, can reduce the risk of a cardiovascular problem by 28 per cent.

And we know that the more risk factors you can tackle, the better.

Living with several at once can multiply your likelihood of heart problems many times.

For instance, if you’re a smoker, have high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, each of which on their own double or quadruple your risk of a heart attack, then your risk rises not 8-16 times but by more than 40 times.

The “heart age” tool, available on the NHS Choices website, can tell you whether your estimated heart age is older than your actual age, suggesting