Reducing Cardiovascular Risk: Too Little, Too Late, Too Short-Term
نویسنده
چکیده
Vascular diseases in general, and cardiovascular disease in particular, are diseases of mass destruction, killing more people in the Western world (and increasingly in the developing world) than world wars. Each year, coronary heart disease kills over half a million Americans and over 100 000 British citizens each year, often prematurely (WHO online). A combination of migration, epidemiological, and intervention studies confirm that lifestyle affects the onset and progression of disease. Most of the excess risk of coronary disease, at least in Western societies, is attributable to well recognized major independent risk factors (cigarette smoking, hypertension, elevated total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), diabetes mellitus, and advancing age). Epidemiological studies have shown a continuum of risk for increasing levels of blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL, and smoking (Wilson 1998). These are aggravated by a variety of contributory predisposing factors (obesity and abdominal obesity, physical inactivity, family history of premature coronary disease, and ethnic characteristics), psychosocial factors, and conditional risk factors (elevated triglycerides, small LDL particles, prothrombotic factors such as fibrinogen, insulin resistance, and abnormal levels of lipoprotein(a) and homocysteine). The UK heads most league tables for premature mortality and morbidity from vascular disease. While crude statistics adequately describe populations, illness affects individuals, and the principal objective of preventive medicine is to minimize the risk of avoidable vascular events in individuals at varying degrees of susceptibility.
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Vascular Health and Risk Management
دوره 1 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2005