Heart disease prevention and treatment

The core of prevention and conditioning of heart disease has never been achieved by single actions such as taking health supplements and vigorous exercise. The essence is to "control the load fluctuations of blood vessels and myocardium within safe thresholds, and at the same time provide repair support after injury." This is the most intuitive conclusion I came to after following more than 300 patients in the cardiac rehabilitation center.

To be honest, I have seen too many people take detours in this matter. A 42-year-old technical director of an Internet company who was hired last week had just had two stents installed. He was still holding on for a morning jog half an hour before delivery. He stayed up until 3 o'clock the day before to change the project plan, thinking that he would be in good health by running 5 kilometers a day.

Regarding the effect of exercise on the heart, there is a lot of quarrel on the Internet right now. One group says that we should do more high-intensity interval training to improve our heart and lungs, while the other group says that middle-aged and elderly people can only walk slowly. Taking one more step will hurt the heart. In fact, both statements are correct, but they are suitable for completely different groups of people. For people around 30 years old who have no underlying disease and whose blood lipids and blood pressure are within the normal range, 20 minutes of HIIT twice a week can indeed improve cardiopulmonary reserve and reduce the risk of long-term disease. ； However, if the coronary arteries have been found to have more than 30% stenosis, or if you have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and you continue to exercise at a high intensity, your blood pressure will soar instantly and it is likely to rupture the fibrous cap on the surface of the plaque and induce acute myocardial infarction. There used to be a 62-year-old aunt who believed the saying on the Internet that "you can walk ten thousand steps a day and live over ninety-nine". After walking for three consecutive months, the frequency of chest tightness became more and more frequent. A review found that the heart function had dropped by 8%. Later, she changed to walking slowly for 20 minutes plus 10 minutes of Baduanjin every day. After three months, the heart function increased by 12%.

After talking about exercise, let’s talk about food. This part is even more controversial. A while ago, a patient came over with a pure vegetarian recipe from a famous online health blogger. He said that after eating it for 3 months, his blood lipids did drop a little, but he always felt tired. When the blood homocysteine ​​was tested, it was three times higher than the normal value. If it goes higher, it will easily cause cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction. Nowadays, the nutritional community is divided on heart-protecting diets. Vegetarians believe that reducing saturated fat intake can stabilize plaques, while omnivores believe that a complete vegetarian diet will lack vitamin B12 and Omega3, which in turn increases the risk of vascular damage. Judging from the cases I have come across, almost 30% of patients who have been on a vegan diet for more than half a year have excessive homocysteine, which is more than twice the probability of omnivorous people. It is not impossible to be a vegetarian, just take extra folic acid and B12. There is no need to talk about fat discoloration. If you eat about 100g of deep-sea fish twice a week, the Omega3 you consume is more effective than eating hundreds of dollars of fish oil supplements, and can actually help stabilize plaques.

Many people think that having a heart disease and getting a stent is equivalent to a "half sentence". They either dare not do anything and lie down every day, or they think that the stent is a "universal catheter" and they still stay up late and drink alcohol. Last year, there was a 50-year-old private company boss who went out to socialize and drank liquor just after being discharged from the hospital. Within a year, the blockage returned. When he came back for a follow-up examination, he patted his thigh and regretted it. He said that he thought everything would be fine if the stent opened the blood vessel. He had no idea that plaque would grow in other parts of the blood vessel. Of course, there are also people who go to the other extreme. There was a 70-year-old man who lay down for half a year because he was afraid of being tired after the surgery. He lost 10 pounds of muscle mass and started to gasp when he moved even a little bit. Later, he followed the rehabilitation class and practiced resistance exercise with his limbs for three months. Now he has no problem walking downstairs every day to buy groceries.

There is no need to be overly anxious. The signs of heart discomfort are actually very obvious, but many people ignore them: for example, it is not difficult to climb the third floor, but recently when I climbed to the second floor, I felt a tightness in my chest, a tight throat, or an inexplicable toothache or sore left shoulder. Even after dental and orthopedic check-ups, there was no problem. Don’t hesitate and get an electrocardiogram quickly. If you really encounter chest pain that does not relieve for more than 10 minutes, call 120 first. Don't take nitroglycerin randomly - if you have low blood pressure or the pain is caused by aortic dissection, eating it will worsen the condition.

To be honest, the heart is a very "real" organ. If you don't overdo it, it won't get angry easily. There is no need to follow the trend and buy thousands of heart-protecting health products, and there is no need to force yourself to do exercises that you can't handle. Finding a rhythm that suits you is better than anything else. After all, a heart that can accompany you for decades deserves more care.