Over 1 million deaths a year in the U.S. and globally, cardiovascular disease accounts for almost 50 percent of all deaths.
At Meridian Valley Laboratory has developed a prevention panel for cardiovascular prevention is on the innovative edge of molecular medicine. Cardiovascular research currently demonstrates markers that have an important role in being able to predict cardiovascular disease progression. These advanced markers play an important role in assessing the biochemical environment, enhancing effective screening and developing prevention plan strategies to strengthen cardiovascular health.
Medical intervention for advanced cardiovascular diseases includes balloon angioplasty, bypass surgery, heart transplants, and cardiac catheterization, all extremely traumatic procedures and very costly. Bypass surgery has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, with approximately 550,000 bypasses performed annually in the U.S. alone, at an average cost of about $50,000-$85,000 each. The total health care cost of cardiovascular disease is hundreds of billions of dollars. The most saddening news is that effective prevention is not communicated well and the general public is often misinformed as to the most effective prevention tools.
Who Is At Risk For Developing Cardiovascular Disease?
Approximately 60 million Americans are at risk for cardiovascular disease. The following list outlines individuals with high risk:
• Family history of cardiovascular disease
• Personal history of myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, or coronary artery disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Hyperthyroidism
• Hypothyroidism
• Adrenal Stress
• Lifestyle stress
• Chronic illness (CFS, FMS, Lupus)
• Diets high in sugar, processed foods, saturated and trans fats
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Use of alcohol, nicotine, drugs (including certain medications)
• Use of oral contraceptives
• Hormonal imbalances (estradiol, cortisol, insulin, melatonin)
• Post-menopause
• Kidney disease
Cardiovascular System
A small muscular organ about the size of a clenched fist, the heart beats more than 100,000 times each day.7 Although the heart has the inherent ability to spontaneously initiate cardiac impulse, the autonomic nervous system plays an important role in regulating the impulse formation. Cardiac performance is influenced by many factors including heart rate, ventricular contraction, atrial function, neural control, drugs, and hormonal and metabolic products.
The cardiovascular system has three crucial functions:
- To transport oxygen and other nutrients to the cells of the body
- To remove metabolic waste products from cells
- To carry substances such as hormones from one part of the body to another
To accomplish these tasks, the heart pumps nearly 2000 gallons of blood throughout the body’s circulatory system every day. The vast network of blood vessels, including arteries, capillaries and veins, is over 60,000 miles long—more than twice the distance around the earth.
Atherosclerosis and Arteriosclerosis
Ongoing molecular and cellular research over the last 30 years reveals that athero- genesis is a complex disorder arising from the combined interaction of lipid accumulation and cell proliferation, involving numerous cell types including arterial medial smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and macrophages.
Atherosclerosis occurs when fat deposits form on the walls of major arteries throughout the body, particularly on the walls of coronary arteries. This process often begins in childhood with the development of lipid-rich lesions, called fatty streaks or atheromas. These lesions undergo pathological changes over time, often beginning to appear as fibrous plaque-fat debris that proliferates smooth-muscle cells and connective tissue-at about age 25.
Once lesions reach an advanced stage, they may calcify, hardening in a process known as arteriosclerosis. If thrombosis (clot formation) occurs on the surface of a plaque of an arteriosclerotic coronary artery, the result can be angina or a heart attack. Atherosclerosis of the cerebral arteries, on the other hand, may cause strokes and transient ischemic attacks.
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