Heartfelt: The Current State Of Heart Health Among Older Adults

You may or may not realize that February is American Heart Month. So, while you’re making plans for affairs of the heart for February 14th, you might also want to gain better insight into just how your physical heart is doing these days. If you’re anything like other older adults, you may have much to understand and much to work on when it comes to your heart health. Heart disease and strokes continue to remain the leading causes of death in our country, with close to 1 million deaths per year, according to the latest data. These two causes outnumber deaths due to cancer and accidental injuries combined. While the number of deaths caused by stroke and heart disease (which include heart attacks and heart failure) is slightly down, they still account for 25% of all deaths and continue to be the leading killers of Americans, as they have for more than a century. What drives these numbers? Health problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes are primary causes, with about ½ of all US adults having some form of cardiovascular disease. A new study reports that men tend to develop cardiovascular disease up to 7 years before women. Among women, 1 in 5 will die due to heart disease, the leading cause of death for women of all ages: more women will die of heart disease than of breast cancer. Tomorrow, February 6th, is National Wear Red Day, a day to raise awareness of the prevalence of heart disease among women. For a list of the essential factors that every woman should know about their heart health, put on your crimson sweater and click here.

Heart disease can involve an array of conditions connected to your heart and blood vessels, including heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, and arrhythmias. Some of the usual suspects to fight these conditions include physical activity, diet, and preventive health screenings, to monitor for such concerns as high blood sugar, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. How else might you lower your risk? A recent post from LabCorp identifies some innovative approaches to lowering your risk, including lowering your noise exposure, optimizing the number of hours you sleep (not too little and not too much), and even warm baths or saunas, to dilate blood vessels and potentially lower blood pressure.  

Speaking of blood pressure, that continues to remain a primary source of concern when it comes to lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease. We previously highlighted new guidelines to help you discern if you have a high blood pressure problem. A brand new study in JAMA, however, highlights how difficult it is to get people to pay attention to their blood pressure and monitor it at home, which is essential for anyone who worries about ongoing high blood pressure. According to this research, even when patients are given free monitoring equipment, education, and support to regularly monitor their blood pressure at home, most people appear unwilling or unable to check their pressure on a regular basis. This is even though we know that those who regularly check their blood pressure have a much better chance of keeping it under control, thereby lowering their risk of heart attack and stroke by 40%. Researchers hypothesize that perhaps we need to make it easier to conduct home blood pressure monitoring. While there are recommended monitoring devices that are relatively easy to use, it could be that the best default will be wearable technology. For a look at some of the suggested blood pressure detecting watches, take off your Timex and look here. Or if you’re an Apple product purchaser, consider this highly rated, and Wirecutter-endorsed Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 42mm] Smartwatch, currently marked down by 25%.