Dorset Cardiology Practice

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Dorset Cardiology Practice

I am a consultant cardiologist based in Dorset.

My 10+ years of training and clinical experience in the field of interventional cardiology, has largely driven my focus on coronary risk and prevention – encouraging holistic physical and mental wellbeing.

07/11/2022

Covid vaccine technology can help fight heart disease

On a more positive note, the same technology used to develop Covid vaccines is being used in an effort to develop the world’s first cure for heart attack victims.

The human heart has no ability to repair itself, victims are left with a permanent scar that often leads to heart failure. We are all born with a set number of muscle cells in our heart and they are exactly the same ones we will die with. The heart has no capacity to repair itself after a heart attack.

The new research uses the approach taken in the Covid vaccine development, and takes the key genetic codes — called mRNAs — which produce proteins that stimulate the creation of healthy new heart cells. These mRNAs can be delivered directly to the heart muscle following a heart attack by deploying the same technology as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

It's an exciting development and the researchers based at Kings College London are being backed by the British Heart Foundation. They have had successful outcomes with damaged pig hearts. Research on humans is due to start soon, so we’ll bring you any updates.

04/11/2022

COVID and its effect on the heart

Earlier this year researchers from Queen Mary University of London looked at the combined evidence from 110 previous Covid-19 studies and found that unvaccinated individuals who contract the virus when they already have high blood pressure, diabetes or major heart damage are up to nine times more likely to suffer serious outcomes - including death, lung failure, admission to intensive care and kidney problems.

The researchers also found that unvaccinated individuals with pre-existing high blood pressure, diabetes or heart artery disease had a two to three-fold increased risk of death, and up to 2.5-fold increased risk of other Covid-19 related complications.

The researchers said that the burden of heart disease caused by Covid-19 was becoming “a dominant public health concern” and highlighted the importance of vaccination to protect against infection and reduce cardiac risks. So please make sure you get you booster vaccination as soon as it becomes available.

02/11/2022

Eating earlier can help weight loss

The Harvard Medical School have produced a study that suggest eating meals earlier in the day can stave off hunger and help people lose weight. The odds of people feeling hungry during the day were halved when people ate their final meal at 5pm, compared with when they had it at 9pm.

Eating earlier was also linked to changes in the activity levels of certain genes, suggesting that the body was less likely to store fat.

It’s hard to do this if you are at work or eating as a family, but if you can manage it, then it’s worth trying. Late eating is associated with increased obesity risk, increased body fat, and reduced weight loss success.

25/10/2022

Blood thinners and bruising

Blood thinning medicines, or anti-coagulants help to prevent blood clots. The best known are aspirin and warfarin. They are prescribed for people who are at high risk of developing clots, to reduce the likelihood of heart attacks or strokes. A side effect is that they do make bruising more likely, although this is manageable and not a serious issue. For most people, the benefits of taking anticoagulants will outweigh the risk of excessive bruising. Here’s a link to a useful feature on blood thinners:
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/ask-the-experts/bruises-from-blood-thinners

24/10/2022

Best time for bed

Do you stay up late or have an erratic bedtime routine? If you do, it might be a good idea to establish a regular routine as researchers from the University of Exeter found that people who fell asleep between 10pm and 11pm had lower rates of heart disease compared with those with earlier or later bedtimes.

The body’s internal clock – circadian rhythm - may be more likely to be disrupted by very early or very late bedtimes and this study showed that there might be adverse consequences for cardiovascular health. This study only proved there was an association, and not a causal link, but the European Society of Cardiology offers similar advice and suggests that getting between 6-8 hours a night is the sweet spot for good cardiovascular health.

23/10/2022

The right kind of porridge

As mornings turn cooler, starting the day with a bowl of porridge is a great way to support your heart health. A 40g bowl of rolled oats contains one third of your daily fibre requirement and is mainly beta-glucan, which is very beneficial. Oats also contain some insoluble fibres which are important for gut health.

Oats are good for reducing cholesterol too - their low glycaemic index means they don’t cause glucose spikes - but some varieties of oats are less healthy and it’s worth knowing what to avoid.

Instant oats are overly processed, finely rolled and chopped to cook fast. Just add boiling water, stir and they are ready to eat. But they won’t keep you satisfied for as long because they are quickly digested compared to rolled oats and oatmeal. Some kinds even include added sugar.

Plain rolled oats are really cheap, cook just as easily in the microwave and you can add your own flavours – For more ‘oaty’ information read this article by the British Heart Foundation – it also has recipes https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/ask-the-expert/porridge

21/10/2022

Recipes that can help to reduce cholesterol

At Dorset Cardiology Practice we post a lot about heart healthy food, with tips on what to eat and what to avoid. We believe that a healthy diet and good nutrition it vitally important maintaining a healthy heart. And when we come across resources that don’t just tell people what’s good for them, but give them a plan, plus ideas about what to cook, that’s a real bonus, and we want to share them with you.

Heart UK the cholesterol charity has some fantastic diet advice resources on their website that will inspire even the most reluctant cook and give you a framework to get started on a new eating plan. There is no sign up and it’s all freely available. The recipes look delicious too. Happy (and healthy) eating!

https://www.heartuk.org.uk/healthy-living/introduction

19/10/2022

What is troponin?

When doctors think a person has had a heart attack, they perform a blood test for troponin, a protein that is released into the bloodstream when the heart is damaged. If there are increased levels of troponin, that’s an indicator there has been a heart attack.

There is one snag with the test, and picking up on the theme of our first post, it’s because it’s not always as effective at identifying a heart problem in women. The amount of troponin released into the blood is often smaller in women and the standard blood test has sometimes failed to pick it up.

The good news is that the British Heart Foundation has funded the development of a new high sensitivity troponin blood test, and although not yet widely available, it will be more widely available. To read more about the research look here https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/ask-the-experts/heart-attack-test-for-women

For more information about troponin this article has a lot of information https://www.healthline.com/health/troponin-levels

17/10/2022

Women’s heart health

We posted about this recently, but because it is a serious concern, here’s another post that highlights some of the risk factors and symptoms for women, and why they have so often been misdiagnosed or worse still, overlooked.

Many of the symptoms of a heart attack are common to both sexes but there are differences in how these have been interpreted. One sign of an impending heart attack is an increase in anxiety, which doctors could be forgiven for not associating with a heart problem, given that reported levels of anxiety in the population as a whole are much higher since COVID. Unfortunately for women who present with this symptom, they have often been diagnosed as having a panic attack or indigestion.

There are also major differences in they impact symptoms have on women. For example, a woman with diabetes is more at risk of heart disease than a man with diabetes. The same goes for smoking. Some risk factors are more common in women, like autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. Finally, risk factors that are unique to women – include menstruation, menopause, or having pre-eclampsia, hypertension and diabetes during pregnancy.

In the UK, twice as many women die from heart disease as from breast cancer – many of them under 65. Currently, 830,000 women are living with coronary heart disease, almost half of them after a heart attack. So please don’t ignore worrying symptoms and make sure they are taken seriously.

13/10/2022

Gut microbiome and heart health

During the COVID lockdown a lot of people – over 4m – reported into an app called the Zoe Covid Study, which made a phenomenal contribution towards understanding how the virus spread and the development of COVID symptoms.

The Zoe project is now focused on its original goal, which is to understand how the food that we eat affects our bodies, and they produce really interesting podcasts, articles and videos featuring some of the world’s leading scientific and medical experts.

Their most recent feature was about how your gut microbiome can have an impact on heart health and the links between gut bacteria and cardiovascular disease. It’s a fascinating area with lots of new findings emerging, and if you are interested there’s a link to the article here https://joinzoe.com/learn/gut-bacteria-and-heart-health

10/10/2022

Eight hours a night is not the magic number.

Every month brings new sleep studies and none of them are reassuring. A research paper presented at the European Society of Cardiology shared the news that seven in 10 heart attacks or strokes experienced by those over 50 could be prevented if everyone got “a decent night’s sleep”. The best scores in cardiac health were achieved by those who slept seven or eight hours a night.

Just days before that study was published another one revealed that less sleep makes us more prone to selfishness and irritable behaviour. Well, what a surprise.

The concerning aspect of all these studies is that it makes everyone fixate on the ‘magic number’ of 8 hours a night, then people feel that they have a problem if they don’t achieve that, and let’s face it, those of us who are past our teens are less likely to do that.

Sleep trackers can make the anxiety worse (speaking from experience) but in fact they aren’t all that accurate as they don’t measure the quality of sleep only the time spent in bed, although later models are getting better.

The latest advice is to take a cognitive behavioural approach to sleep and in another post this month we’ll look at what that involves in more detail.

07/10/2022

Artificial Intelligence – not all bad

When you go to your optician to have an eye check you don’t expect it to tell you the state of your heart health but this is precisely what a new artificial intelligence tool will do.
This latest technology scans eyes and can accurately predict a person’s risk of heart disease in less than a minute, according to researchers.

So it might be that the ophthalmologist and other health workers will be able to carry out cardiovascular screening in their premises or in local clinics using a camera – without the need for blood tests or blood pressure checks – according to the world’s largest study of its kind.

Researchers found AI-enabled imaging of the retina’s veins and arteries can specify the risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death and stroke.

They say the results could open the door to a highly effective, non-invasive test becoming available for people at medium to high risk of heart disease that does not have to be done in a clinic.

Read the full article here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/04/ai-eye-checks-can-predict-heart-disease-risk-in-less-than-minute-finds-study

Address

Dorset Private Medical Clinic, The Poundbury Clinic, Middlemarsh Street
Dorchester
DT13FD

Telephone

+447557376983

Website

https://dorsetcardiologypractice.com/

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