Key Risk Factors for Ischemic Heart Disease?

How Lifestyle & Genetics Influence Ischemic Heart Disease Risks

Ischemic heart disease refers to coronary heart disease or coronary artery heart disease and usually occurs when the heart gets low blood flow. This disease is the major cause of increasing death cases throughout the world. From 1990 to 2021, the death cases numbers from ischemic heart disease increased to 8.992 million from 5.367 million worldwide.   

Risk factors of ischemic heart disease are related to individuals' personal lifestyle habits, characteristics and health problems that can cause arteriosclerosis or damage arteries. 

Understanding Forms of Ischemic Heart Disease 

Ischemic heart disease is a blockage of coronary arteries that provides oxygen-rich blood to the heart. This heart disease leads to shortness of chest pain and the risk of heart attacks. Two types of ischemic heart disease mainly lead to serious complications, those are:

•  Acute Coronary Syndrome: This is a complicated condition. It occurs when the blood supply to the heart is severely blocked or reduced, leading to an insufficient oxygen supply. Acute coronary syndrome causes breathing issues and heart attacks.   
• Stable Ischemic Heart Disease: It is a chronic form in which coronary arteries slowly narrow over a few years. This gradual change of arteries leads to a mismatching of heart muscle oxygen demand and supply.    

Risk Factors of Ischemic Heart Disease

An unhealthy lifestyle, eating habits, lack of physical activities and biological heart issues can lead to the risk of getting this heart disease. Key risk factors of ischemic heart disease may include: 

• Age: Being older than 45 years (men) and 55 years (women).
• Diet: High intake of refined carbohydrates and saturated fats promotes plaque buildup.
• High Blood Pressure: Damages arteries and accelerates the atherosclerosis process.
• Lack of Sleep: Insufficient sleep increases heart disease risk.
• Physical Inactivity: Lack of regular exercise contributes to poor heart health.
• Hypercholesterolemia: High cholesterol levels increase the risk of blocked arteries.
• Smoking: Damages blood vessels and significantly raises heart disease risk.
• High Blood Sugar Levels: Leads to increased risk of heart attacks (infarction).
• Anaemia: Reduces oxygen supply to the heart, straining it.
• Autoimmune Diseases: Conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus cause inflammation, harming blood vessels.
• Chronic Kidney Disease: Increases heart disease risk through associated blood pressure and cholesterol issues.
• Genetic Factors: A family history of coronary or heart disease increases susceptibility.
• Metabolic Syndrome: A cluster of conditions (high blood pressure, blood sugar, and abnormal cholesterol) that together heighten the risk.

Being obese and not having regular exercise can build fatty deposits in the arteries. Fatty deposits in arteries can block oxygen-rich blood flow to the heart and cause a stroke.  

Signs and Symptoms of Ischemic Heart Disease

Symptoms of ischemic heart disease are detected when the heart tends to pump harder to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the entire body. Symptoms are: 

• Angina, chest pain affects the left side or the middle of the chest.
• Patients may feel pressure, squeezing and heaviness in the chest.
• Breathing shortness. 
• Fatigue or tiredness. 
•  Heartburn.
• Nausea.
• Cold sweating. 
• Dizziness. 

Diagnosis of Ischemic Heart Disease

Primarily, doctors prefer to check blood pressure levels and perform blood tests to check cholesterol levels. Further tests to diagnose this heart disease include: 

• Exercise Stress Tests
• Electrocardiogram (ECG)
• Chest X-rays
• Echocardiogram 
• MRI scans (Magnetic resonance imaging scans)
• Coronary angiography 
• CT scans
• Myocardial perfusion scan 
• Coronary calcium scan

Ischemic Heart Disease Treatment 

Managing risk factors, changing lifestyle with healthy habits, and proper medications can treat ischemic heart disease. Detailed discussions are provided on how to manage this heart disease. 

• Having healthy foods that are low in saturated fat, sodium, sugar, and trans fat can help people balance their weight.
• Following a Mediterranean diet can lower the risk of stroke or heart attack. 
• Regular physical activities like 30 minutes of exercising and walking for a minimum of 5 days a week.
• Quit smoking and alcohol consumption. 
• Medication to treat diabetes and blood pressure levels.
• Blood-thinning medicines like aspirin, rivaroxaban, and clopidogrel reduce heart attack risk by thinning blood and preventing clotting. 
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs like pravastatin, simvastatin, and rosuvastatin remove cholesterol from the heart and lower the risk of heart failure.  
• Percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting surgeries reopen blockages and restore blood flow.  

Extreme smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol level and lack of physical activity are key risk factors for ischemic heart disease. This heart disease causes chest pain, breathing issues, fatigue, and heartburn as major symptoms of heart difficulties in supplying sufficient oxygen to blood to the body. 

Regular exercise, a good diet with healthy food options, and blood sugar, cholesterol, and pressure-lowering medicines are treatment options for this disease.