6 surprising things that increase your heart health risks

Francesco Capcio, professor of cardiovascular medicine and epidemiology at the University of Warwick, explains: “Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes does not eliminate the damage to the heart.”

“Excessive nicotine intake hardens small blood vessels, primarily in the lungs, leading to pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which the blood pressure in the lungs increases and the heart becomes more strained,” he says. This can eventually lead to heart failure.

moreover, vape It can cause pulmonary fibrosis, which damages and scars the lungs. “This stiffens the lungs, reduces circulation, causes high blood pressure and puts strain on the left side of the heart,” Professor Cappuccio added.

He described it as “extraordinary” that the heart health of people who smoke e-cigarettes is deteriorating “very quickly”.

become pessimistic

The benefits of looking on the bright side of life were proclaimed by Monty Python decades ago, and doing so can actually benefit your health.

Researchers at University College London followed more than 350 patients who were hospitalized after the blood supply to the heart was cut off, usually due to a heart attack or angina pectoris. Before being discharged from the hospital, patients completed a questionnaire assessing their optimism and recorded information about their lifestyle.

of findingsA paper published in 2015 found that the most pessimistic patients were twice as likely to have a heart attack, need heart surgery, or die over the next four years than the most optimistic patients. It became clear that.

The research team said their findings could be explained by lifestyle habits associated with pessimism. For example, the most pessimistic smokers were more likely to continue their habit after hospitalization, while the majority of the most optimistic quit smoking.

“While it is not well understood how emotions such as pessimism affect health, they may be linked to cardiovascular health by contributing to stress, blood pressure, blood flow, and chronic low-grade inflammation. “It is hypothesized that this may be a contributing factor,” says Professor Ioanna Tsolaki. She completed her PhD in chronic disease epidemiology at Imperial College London.

being short

Scientists have known for decades that there is a correlation between height and health, with studies showing that type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease are more prevalent among shorter people, It has been suggested that people with high blood pressure are at increased risk of cancer and blood clots.

2015 dealt another blow to those facing vertical challenges. study Researchers at the University of Leicester found that for every 6.5cm below average height, the risk of coronary artery disease (which narrows the arteries that supply blood to the heart and increases the risk of heart attack) increases by 13.5%. did.

Until this paper was published, scientists had found no link between short stature and poor heart health, and that short people were more likely to have lacked nutritious diets in childhood. Or, they thought it was due to other factors, such as being more likely to be in a poor socio-economic environment.

However, recent findings based on genetic data from nearly 200,000 people show that genes associated with short stature increase the risk of coronary artery disease, while genetic variants known to increase height may protect against coronary artery disease. It suggests.

“Short people are more likely to develop heart disease than tall people,” Professor Tzolaki says. “The association between height and cardiovascular disease may be mediated by lipid profile, blood pressure, lung function, and heart rate.”

snore

Everyone snores from time to time, whether it's because you're choking with a cold or you've had a few too many glasses of wine. However, regular snoring, where your breathing stops and starts during sleep, can be a sign of sleep apnea.

These repeated interruptions in breathing are thought to damage the heart and wider cardiovascular system and, if left untreated, can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack.

A Stanford University study examined data on 766,000 US adults between the ages of 20 and 50 and found that 60 percent of them had sleep apnea. more likely to have a stroke compared to those who did not snore regularly over the next 10 years.

Sanjiv Narayan, professor of medicine at the university and lead author of the study, presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in August. He said at the time: “Sleep apnea is a very common condition, but we ignore it because we think of it as something trivial or just a slight annoyance.” No one really showed us the magnitude of the risk.”