Today is World Heart Day!

Today is World Heart Day 💙

Cardiovascular Disease is the number one cause of death in the world. 

In 2016 15.2 million deaths were attributed to Stroke and Heart Disease. 

In Australia, Cardiovascular disease (CVD) was the underlying cause of death in 41,800 deaths in 2018 (26% of all deaths) according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The causes of heart disease are multifactorial- meaning there is not one single contributor but a collection of risk factors. 

We divide these into modifiable and non-modifiable. Meaning the things you can change and the things you cant.

Non-modifiable risk factors are 

💙Age

💙Gender 

💙Family History

💙Ethnicity 

Modifiable Risk Factors 

💙Smoking 

💙Exercise

💙Hypertension (High Bood Pressure)

💙Dyslipidaemia (Abnormal Lipids/cholesterol)

💙Diabetes

💙Pre-diabetes

💙Metabolic Syndrome 

💙Obesity

Type 2 Diabetes, Prediabetes, Metabolic syndrome and Obesity are really all the same disease with high circulating insulin as the cause. 

Type 1 Diabetes is a separate disease and if good blood glucose control is obtained then the risk is the same as the normal populations. Sadly, this is often not the case. 

Dyslipidaemia is also multifactorial. The 2 biggest risks are 

1/ FH (Familial hypercholesterolaemia) where families have very high cholesterol and very early cardiac disease. 

2/high insulin resulting in low HDL and High Triglycerides. 

Hypertension is multifactorial as well but the 2 most common causes are 

1/ essential  hypertension which means no known cause or 

2/ related to glycemic control which you guessed is related to insulin! 

So at Real Life Medicine the recommendations we focus on for a beautiful healthy heart are 

• Don’t smoke
• Do some movement 
• Keep insulin low and optimise blood glucose control.

How do you keep your insulin low?

Low Carb Real Food 

Sleep Well 

Minimise Stress

Increase your muscle mass with some strength training. 

Lifestyle medicine is used not only to prevent cardiovascular disease but to treat it.

This is our favourite thing in the world.

Empowering our patients back to health 

Addressing lifestyle has so many benefits apart from the Holy Grail of Good Health. 

It is free, has no side effects and no drug interactions 

Seriously what could be better!

So for a wonderful healthy heart

Join us over at Real Life Medicine.

Join the Low Carb Real Food Revolution 

Love your Heart

Love your Body

Love and Live Well 

Lucy and Mary 💙💚

Dr Lucy Burns and Dr Mary Barson 

Real Life Medicine