You’ve heard of cardiovascular disease (CVD), you likely know someone with it, but do you know your own risk of CVD?
“Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year” and unfortunately, cardiovascular disease and related mortality are both increasing in working-age adults.
February is Heart Month and it gives Americans a reason to focus on their heart health. But heart health should be top of mind throughout the year given the prevalence of heart disease—and the tools we have available today to proactively and effectively improve people’s heart health.
How to evaluate your risk of a cardiovascular event
At Age Management Center of New England, our patient care philosophy is that every individual deserves to be fully informed about their hormonal and metabolic health so they can make informed decisions about improving their quality of life.
The same is true for patient heart health. We believe everybody should “know their numbers” and what that means in terms of cardiovascular risk. If you don’t know your risk, someone needs to help you find that information.
What are those numbers, exactly? At a minimum, your weight, cholesterol and diabetes risk. It comes as a shock to many patients when their blood work shows they are pre-diabetic or at risk of becoming diabetic. But there are a variety of other factors that need to be considered, as well, including blood pressure, family history and personal history, to name a few.
For our patients interested in learning more about and improving their heart health, we can complete a risk analysis using the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) calculator during a comprehensive consultation or annual work up.
What can you do with this information?
We recently completed a risk analysis on a 47-year-old patient who came back with a 70% risk of a cardiovascular event, which includes CVD, heart attack and stroke, among other issues. By providing insight and tools to improve his wellness, we helped him lower his risk from 70% to 35%.
That means this young, vibrant patient who came in with no idea he was at risk has decreased his chance of experiencing a potentially life changing, or life-threatening heart event by 50%.
The most important takeaway from a cardiovascular risk assessment is having the information you need to positively improve your health. And through our full heart risk evaluation, we can help you understand and improve heart health and the health of your overall vascular system.
For those with venous leg disease, including swelling, spider veins and varicose veins, our partner practice the Advanced Vein Center also helps individuals treat and eliminate leg veins and improve leg vein health.
If you’re interested in completing a cardiovascular risk analysis, let us know and we can get add this service during your next consultation or annual check-up.