Heart Risks

Yet many people at high risk do not fit the typical profile of a person with heart disease - Anahad O’Connor

Heart Risks

image by: Subang Jaya Medical Centre

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The lesser-known risk factors for heart disease

Most people know that the risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure, smoking, raised cholesterol and being overweight. However, many people who have a heart attack do not have any of these traditional risk factors. Research has suggested that conditions such as gout, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis are also risk factors for heart disease. What they have in common is chronic inflammation. In fact, some researchers have begun to re-frame cardiovascular disease as a chronic inflammatory disease of the arteries. Scientists sometimes refer to this as the inflammatory hypothesis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

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 The lesser-known risk factors for heart disease

Thankfully, there is a way to measure inflammation in the body. One way of doing this is with a blood test called high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP). People with raised levels of hs-CRP have an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Raised levels of LDL-cholesterol are also a risk factor for ASCVD. Several studies have reported that people who have high levels of both LDL cholesterol and hs-CRP seem to have the highest risk of cardiovascular disease.

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