World Heart Day 2020: Take control of your heart health
29 September 2020
World Heart Day 2020
Take control of your heart health this World Heart Day
The term ‘cardiovascular disease’ (CVD) refers to any disease of the heart, vascular disease of the brain, or disease of the blood vessel. More people die from CVDs worldwide than from any other cause: over 17.9 million every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these deaths, 80% are due to coronary heart diseases (eg heart attack) and cerebrovascular diseases (e.g. strokes) and mostly affect low- and middle-income countries.
To try and raise awareness of the dangers of CVD and associated conditions, the World Heart Foundation celebrate World Heart Day on September 29th every year to inform and educate on the prevalence of heart disease.
Our latest blog looks at CVD and provides more information on types of disease and symptoms, so you can know what to look out for and how to reduce the impact of potential future heart problems.
The UK Situation
There are around 7.4 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK. Heart and circulatory diseases cause more than a quarter (27 per cent) of all deaths in the UK; that’s nearly 170,000 deaths each year – an average of 460 people each day or one death every three minutes.
Healthcare costs relating to heart and circulatory diseases are estimated at £9 billion each year.
| Nation | No. of people dying from CVD | No. of people under 75 dying from CVD | Estimated number of people living with CVD |
| England | 136,317 | 35,581 | 6.15 million |
| Scotland | 17,002 | 4,675 | 720,000 |
| Wales | 9,376 | 2,607 | 340,000 |
| Northern Ireland | 3,938 | 1,085 | 225,000 |
| United Kingdom | 167,116 | 44,261 | 7.4 million |
What are cardiovascular diseases?
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and they include:
- coronary heart disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle;
- cerebrovascular disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain;
- peripheral arterial disease – disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs;
- rheumatic heart disease – damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria;
- congenital heart disease – malformations of heart structure existing at birth;
- deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism – blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs.
What are the symptoms of cardiovascular disease?
Symptoms of heart disease vary based on what condition you have but can include:
- chest pain
- pain, weakness or numb legs and/or arms
- breathlessness
- very fast or slow heartbeat, or palpitations
- feeling dizzy, lightheaded or faint
- fatigue
- swollen limbs
How is cardiovascular disease diagnosed?
Diagnosis of coronary heart disease depends on your symptoms and what condition your doctor thinks you may have. Tests may be based on your family history and can include:
- blood tests
- chest x-ray
- electrocardiogram (ECG)
- echocardiogram
- CT scan
- MRI scan.
How Randox Health can help
Did you know that your heart is the size of your fist and the strongest muscle in your body? If you live to be 70, it will have beaten two and a half billion times.
Although impressive and strong, your heart can also become vulnerable from habitual risk factors like smoking, eating an unhealthy diet or putting it under stress.
Controlling these key risk factors and monitoring your blood pressure regularly may reduce an individual’s risk of CVD.
At Randox Health, we provide a range of specialised tests that enable you to take full control of your health.
Heart Health is one of our specialised tests and includes the Signature Heart Health panel of tests plus a resting ECG to give an in-depth assessment of risk of future heart disease.
For World Heart Day 2020, you can gain a detailed understanding of your Heart Health with our range of testing. Contact us today using the below details.
Click here to find out more about our testing.
Click here to book a test with Randox Health.
Email: info@randoxhealth.com
Phone: 0800 2545 130
Want to know more?
Contact us or visit our Randox Health page to view more.