With the exception of low-income countries that are dealing disproportionately with health problems such as HIV/AIDS, the world’s leading cause of death is heart disease. And if you ask the typical person who is suffering from heart disease how they got it and what to do about it, they already know they need to take positive actions such as eating clean, exercising more and most likely taking medications prescribed by their doctor. Nevertheless, there are many misunderstandings about heart disease that will adversely affect the outcome – ignorance, in regard to cardiovascular fitness, is not bliss. Let’s take a look at three common fallacies regarding heart disease.
Fallacy #1: Hypertension Is the Same as High Blood Pressure
Most people think preventing heart disease is all about keeping their blood pressure under control. Certainly, keeping your BP under control is smart; but there’s more to heart disease than high blood pressure. Blood pressure is determined by a two-digit equation, such as 130/85. The first number indicates the amount of force produced by the heart, and the second number indicates the amount of resistance produced by the arteries.
Blood pressure readings will fluctuate in response to exercise, and this is normal – that is, the blood pressure becomes higher, but only temporarily. And one of the benefits of exercising, whether that exercise is running or lifting weights, is that it can help lower resting blood pressure. It’s only when the blood pressure reading stays high that the condition is referred to as hypertension.
Gender and age are factors that determine normal blood pressure. A normal reading for a 35-year-old man would be 120/80. Here is the life expectancy for that same man with three higher levels of blood pressure:
BP of 130/90 = 67 ½ years
BP of 140/95 = 62 ½ years
BP of 150/100 = 55 years
An estimated 50 million people in the US have elevated blood pressure, and an estimated 15 million of these don’t even realize they have it! In the US the third leading cause of death and the most common cause of stroke is hypertension!
Fallacy #2: There Are Five Risk Factors Associated with Heart Disease
When you go for an annual physical, often only five risk factors of cardiovascular disease are looked at: elevated cholesterol, high blood
pressure, diabetes mellitus, obesity and smoking. It’s not that simple – just ask Dr. Mark Houston.
Dr. Houston is an associate clinical professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and also the director of the Hypertension Institute, both located in Nashville, Tennessee. He has conducted 75 research studies on hypertension and has written more than 120 articles on the subject that have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals. Says Houston, “The risk factor equation for coronary heart disease is incredibly long and complex, and constantly evolving with over 1,000 coronary heart disease risk factors, markers or predictors now reported in the scientific literature.”
Consider that many of the approximately 1,000 risk factors are genetic, and nothing can be done about them. For example, height, or rather, the lack of it, is a risk factor. According to Houston, for men who are less than 5 feet 5 inches tall and women who are less than 5 feet tall, “the risk for coronary heart disease is increased by about 50 percent.” That being said, here is what could be regarded as a “Top 20 List of Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease”:
1. Endothelial dysfunction
2. Increased oxidative stress and/or lack of oxidative defenses
3. Dyslipidemia
4. Increased HS-CRP and inflammation
5. Elevated homocysteine
6. Hypertension
7. Age
8. Genetics
9. Calcification seen on heart scans
10. Hormonal deficiencies in men and women
11. Diabetes mellitus, hyperglycemia and increased insulin levels
12. Hypothyroidism
13. Heavy-metal toxicity
14. Lack of exercise
15. Lack of sleep
16. Low levels of vitamins K and D
17. Left ventricular hypertrophy
18. Microalbuminuria and/or kidney disease
19. Obesity
20. Smoking
For more information about the causes of heart disease and what can be done to prevent it, I highly recommend Dr. Houston’s two books that are written for the lay person,
What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Hypertension and
What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Heart Disease(available at major bookstores or through www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com).
Fallacy #3: Aerobic Fitness Prevents Cardiovascular Disease
Despite the passionate writings of those who love distance running and other forms of aerobic exercise, “cardiac health” and “aerobic fitness” are not interchangeable ideas. And as far as heart health is concerned, any benefits achieved from aerobic exercise can also be achieved through weight training.
According to cardiologist Henry A. Solomon, MD, in his book
The Exercise Myth, “Cardiovascular health refers to the absence of disease of the heart and blood vessels, not to the ability of an individual to do a certain amount of physical work. Your overall cardiac health is determined by the condition of various heart structures, including the heart muscle, the valves, the special cardiac tissues that carry electrical impulses and the coronary arteries.” In fact, it’s possible to have extremely high levels of aerobic fitness and have serious heart disease. Case in point: Jim Fixx.
Jim Fixx was considered a running guru, and his book
The Complete Book of Running (Random House, 1977) was a number-one bestseller for 11 straight weeks. Fixx died at the age of 52 of a heart attack after his daily run, and an autopsy showed that atherosclerosis (fatty accumulation that thickens the artery wall) had blocked one coronary artery by 95 percent, another by 85 percent, and another by 70 percent.
It’s interesting to note that Dr. Kenneth Cooper, considered the “Father of Aerobics,” does not say that lack of aerobic fitness is a cardiovascular risk factor. In his book
Running Without Fear, which was written in response to Jim Fixx’s death, Cooper presented his top ten list of risk factors for coronary heart disease; number 7 on the list was “Inactivity and sedentary living habits” – not lack of aerobic exercise, but simply inactivity.
When it comes to mortality rates, the media currently focuses most of its attention on communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS; however, estimates from the World Health Organization indicate that deaths from noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease “will increase by 17 percent in the next decade,” to quote UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. To reduce your chances of adding to these numbers, learn to separate the facts from the fallacies about heart disease.