Which Common Heart Diseases Should You Be Concerned About?

As the UK’s biggest killer, coronary heart disease (CHD) can drastically impact your wellbeing, as well as your heart health. It tends to affect your wellness when fatty materials build up in the walls of your coronary arteries, as this means that your blood can’t easily get to the muscles and tissues of your heart. This clogging-up process is known as atherosclerosis, and can also contribute to high blood pressure, which also increases your risk of heart disease.

You may be at a higher risk of atherosclerosis due to genetic factors, which you might be able to determine if you have a family history of heart disease in middle-age. However, you can reduce your risk of CHD by working on lifestyle factors. An unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, diabetes, high blood pressure and, most importantly, smoking, increases your risk of CHD. Thanks to better treatments, deaths from coronary heart disease have nearly halved in the past couple of decades, but the best treatment is always prevention.

But is this the only wellness worry you should have for your heart? Let’s take a look at other common heart diseases:

1. Chronic Heart Failure (CHD) – Roughly one million people in the UK have been diagnosed with CHD, but there are many more estimated to have it unknowingly. CHD is one of the main causes of heart failure, occurring when your heart doesn’t works effectively as a pump, and fluid gathers in your lower limbs and lungs. CHD can significantly reduce your quality of life, as it comes with a whole host of nasty symptoms.


2. Infection – Thanks to antibiotics, it’s much rarer to be affected by bacterial infections such as endocarditis these days. However, these infections do exist, and can damage the valves of your heart as well as other tissues. This can lead to heart failure or cause abnormal heart rhythms.


3. Congenital heart disease – As your baby grows in your womb, a number of defects can develop in their heart, such as septal defect, which is a hole in the heart. Congenital heart disease may cause your baby to experience abnormal blood flow and put excessive strain on their heart after baby has been born.


4. Cardiomyopathy – This disease of the heart muscle can occur for different reasons. Causes include coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, viral infection, high alcohol intake and thyroid disease.

Categories: Atherosclerosis, Chronic Heart Failure, infection

Has a Nutrient in Red Meat Damaged Your Heart Health?

If you take a red meat nutrient as a supplement for weight loss, or to improve your muscle growth wellness, you may actually be harming your heart health. This is according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, which found that L-carnitine capsules, which are widely available in health food stores and online, may damage your heart and arteries.

These supplements are said to burn fat, build muscle, and even improve the wellbeing of people with heart conditions. However, this new study indicates that in individuals with raised levels of TMAO (a potentially harmful compound produced more by meat eaters than vegetarians or vegans) high levels of L-carnitine in the blood were associated with heart disease.

Led by Dr Stanley Hazen from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, US, the researchers wrote, ‘Discovery of a link between L-carnitine ingestion, gut microbiota metabolism and CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk has broad health-related implications. Our studies reveal a new pathway potentially linking dietary red meat ingestion with atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries).’

They continued, ‘Our studies have public health relevance as L-carnitine is a common over-the-counter dietary supplement. Our results suggest that the safety of chronic L-carnitine supplementation should be examined, as high amounts of orally ingested L-carnitine may under some conditions foster growth of gut microbiota with an enhanced capacity to produce TMAO and potentially advance atherosclerosis.’

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, commented, ‘This is certainly an interesting discovery and sheds some light on why red meat might have an impact on heart health. While the findings won’t necessarily mean a change to existing recommendations, these scientists have served up a good reminder for us to think about alternative sources of protein if we regularly eat a lot of red or processed meats.’

She added, ‘The odd meat-free day isn’t such a bad thing and eating less meat automatically leaves room in your diet for other foods high in protein like fish, pulses, nuts and eggs, all of which should be part of a nutritious and varied diet. Unless told otherwise by a doctor or qualified health professional, we should be able to get all the nutrients we need from a healthy, balanced diet without additional supplements.’

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Has a Nutrient in Red Meat Damaged Your Heart Health?

Categories: Atherosclerosis, carnitine, gut microbiota, health, heart, heart health, meat, potentially, red meat, Research