Does anyone have knowledge or a view on the overall modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors and how they are ranked or weighted to the overall risk of developing cardiovascular disease or suffering a stroke heart attack?
I am 53 and have had high blood pressure for a long time. I am maxed out on two different types of medication and my average BP is 149/85.
My healthcare provider wants to introduce a third drug as they are of the opinion that I am at a high risk or heart disease over next 5-10 years given my ambulatory readings. I am not keen on adding another drug.
I raised the issue that I didn't have any of the other modifiable cardiovascular disease risks such as smoking/high alcohol level/exercise etc but they seemed fixated on the BP reading.
Have I got this wrong as although 149/85 isn't ideal, it might not warrant additional meds as I don't have other risk factors? I got the impression that blood pressure levels were like 90% of the risk of developing future cardio problems. Generally apart from a bad back and sometimes side effects of existing meds, I feel ok most of the time.
Written by
Jo198919
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9 Replies
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Hi,
The following are risk factors for cardio diseases( link below).
Ranking I'm not sure its a simple as that.
I had a big Heart Attack a few weeks ago.
Blood pressure fine, cholesterol fine, weight a few pounds over but as I weight lifted I reckon its more muscle mass then body fat, ex smoker ( over 10 years ago).
Doctors classed it as genetic as my parents suffer from heart disease. So the concept of ranking/weightings / probabilities might not apply to all.
I am going to say that the risk factors will differ from person to person. Listen to the advice they give you and then weigh them up with what works best for you.
I took 2 different blood pressure tablets for over 10years. My blood pressure was well controlled. I didn’t have high cholesterol, I do not smoke, I used to drink a few times a week and I am not over weight. I had a heart attack 12 months ago aged 43.
I wasn’t unwell leading up to the event and my blood pressure reading leading up were good. Complete shock to the system. You can go mad thinking about what you should do differently or could have done differently.
I was told that it could be genetic as my late father had heart disease and died at the age of 58.
I hope you find the best solution for you and that it works 🤞🏽
High blood pressure is only one of the factors that will increase your heart health and stroke risk. The modifiable factors include diet, exercise, lipids total and profile, exercise, body mass, smoking and alcohol. Of the latter group only lipids management may require medication, the rest are entirely down to the individual who may have different attitudes and perceptions of how valuable, relevant and achievable they are to themselves.
Jo are you male or female? Might seem like a strange question but being a women and at menopause is another risk factor that is nit talked about, I suffered a HA in July my risk factor was high cholesterol which I didn’t know I had and certainly didn’t have 5 years ago at 50 year health check. Since then no change to my diet what had changed was I had been through the menopause, I have since learned that pre menopause women’s hearts are protected after the MP we know longer have oestrogen to protect us. I truly believe this was one of my risk factors.
i can't comment on the risk factors to your satisfaction, but,like you, i will i was reluctant to have more hypertension medication - i find it hard to accept that the normal procedure is to alter your meds rather than make any attempt to identify to specific cause of the high blood pressure so that the cause can be treatedbut after a chat with a consultant, who took the time to listen, i understood that it is not unusual to need to try different combinations to bring BP under control because the drugs ofen affect different people to different degrees - also the preferred strategy (with her team at least) was to add a medication which acts on a slightly different aspect of the BP control mechanism rather than simply increase the dosage
BP is affected by quite a quite a wide range of interacting factors, so it is bound to be difficult to find out which factors are off balance - the process would probably be very expensive and i'm guessing that it could be difficult to investigate some factors - so the cost and time effective solution is an array of medication - there are lots available now so it is usually possible to try alternatives if one gives troublesome side effects
having high lipoprotein(A) is a key marker for cardiovascular risk. This will often determine any genetic risk factor to you. I recently had this blood test at the GP due to family members testing high on the back of being diagnosed with heart disease. You can also pay private to have the blood test, but GP should be able to offer it
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Tired of all of this
husband diagnosed with cardiovascular disease 
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