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Heart disease not only has a high risk of death it also carries with it a huge quality of life burden. So even though medical breakthroughs have allowed heart attack survivors to get extra years, it also means that increasing numbers will end up with disability or have to live in a nursing home.

This was highlighted by a new study from the University of Michigan Health system and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Among people with Congestive heart failure, it was found that they were much more likely to be disabled than people who lacked the condition. They were also found to have more problems with standard daily life activities, e.g. cooking, cleaning and walking around. They were also more likely to need care from a nursing home.

The study is from data of the 200 data of the Health and Retirement Study. Important points from the study:

People with Congestive Heart Failure are more likely to have home care (42%) compared to other groups (11%). 10% of people with heart failure are in nursing homes compared with 2%. People with heart failure are much more likely to have problems in daily living. For example 42% of CHF patients had limitations with walking across a room, compared with 12% for others.

This clearly demonstrates that heart disease, most specifically congestive heart failure not only has a huge mortality risk it also makes a great reduction in quality of life.

Tags: Heart disease by Matias
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The number one risk factor for dying of heart disease is your age. 83 percent of people who die of coronary heart disease are over 65. From this you can see that by tackling the root cause of heart disease which is the effects of aging we can drastically reduce the incidence of heart disease.

What you can do to cut your risk of getting heart disease:

• Fund aging research – by donating to aging research which is specifically targeted to counteract aging effects you will help ensure that you and your children do not get heart disease.
• Exercise – an inactive lifestyle is a risk factor in heart disease. So with regular moderate or vigorous activity heart disease risk can be reduced, the more vigorous the better, though if you have not exercised for a while it is best to start gradually.
• Lose weight - people who have excessive body fat, particularly around the waist, are more likely to get heart disease and stroke. So if you are overweight you can reduce your risk by eating more healthily and exercising.
• Stop smoking - a smokers risk of developing a coronary heart at is 2 to 4 times more than a non-smoker. Its time to stub it out.
• Monitor your cholesterol - high cholesterol is another risk factor, this can be modified by diet, but its important to find out whether you have high blood cholesterol to start with, so go get a check-up.
• Monitor your blood pressure – a high blood pressure makes the heart work harder, increases risk of heart disease, and when it exists with other risk factor risk of heart attack or stroke increases several fold.
• Control diabetes - if you have diabetes it is essential that it is managed as about 3/4 of people with diabetes end up dying because of heart or blood vessel disease.
• Calm down – stress may be a factor in heart disease, or at least lead to other factors such as overeating or smoking, so if you are stressed out, identify what it is that is stressing you out and work on removing this from your life.
• Drink less alcohol – if you drink too much alcohol you can raise your blood pressure increase risk of stroke or heart attack, if you are drinking more than one or two drinks per day it would help to cut down.

Tags: Aging, Heart disease by Matias
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