Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Prevention Policy

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common term, which describes an illness of the heart or the blood vessels. CVD occurs due to the process of atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, transient ischaemic attack (TIA), peripheral vascular disease (PVD), and aortic aneurysm belong to CVD. Why is CVD so important? It is associated with high mortality and morbidity in many parts of the world because, CVD kills about 17 million individuals worldwide every year. This number is also rising gradually. CVD causes one-third of premature deaths in males and one-fifth of premature deaths in females. CAD is the major single cause of death worldwide. One-sixth of CAD episodes present with unexpected death, which is a well-known feature of coronary artery disease.

Alopecia Areata: Another Type of Hair Loss

Alopecia areata is a common cause for hair loss and may be immune-mediated. The immune system doesn’t identify the hair follicles (roots) as own and consider them as foreign substances in affected people (autoimmunity). The process of alopecia areata and regrowth of hairs are poorly understood. It is linked with some other autoimmune diseases like vitiligo (white areas of the skin), diabetes mellitus, and thyroid disease. People with alopecia areata are more prone to have these disorders, although the risk of developing those diseases is low. The health-care professional may offer a blood test for antibodies, which may predict whether an affected individual is prone to develop pernicious anaemia or thyroid diseases.

Male Pattern Baldness (Androgenic Alopecia)

Hair loss (alopecia) is a common problem. It occurs due to a disorder of the hair follicle in which the scalp skin appears normal (non-scarring alopecia) or due to a problem within the scalp skin, which leads to permanent loss of the hair follicle (scarring or cicatricial alopecia). Scarring alopecia causes shiny atrophic bald areas in the scalp skin. These areas are lack of hair follicles.

Other Risk Factors of CAD

Although there are major risk factors for atherosclerosis hence coronary artery disease (CAD), additional risk factors for CAD have been identified. They are:

• Sedentary lifestyle
• Psychological factors
• Genetic factors
• Alcohol
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Coagulation (clotting) factors
• Lipoprotein (a)
• C-reactive protein (CRP)

Sedentary lifestyle

Lack of physical activities is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). It is similar to hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, and smoking. Regular exercise possibly has some protective effects against the development of atherosclerosis hence CAD. Sedentary lifestyle is also a significant risk factor of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and hyperlipidaemia, which are main modifiable risk factors of CAD. Lack of exercise raises the risk of developing stroke and CAD by 50 %.

Modifiable Risk Factors of CAD

Certain major risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD) can be modifiable. These kinds of risk factors are more important than non-modifiable risk factors because, they induce atherosclerosis in genetically susceptible individuals and are possibly preventable.

Prevention of CAD is linked with the alteration of modifiable risk factors. Primary prevention can be explained as the prevention of atherosclerosis, which is the main cause for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), ischaemic stroke, and peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Secondary prevention can be defined as the treatment of the atherosclerotic disease or its complications. The goal of prevention is to minimise the prevalence of first or repeated clinical events due to CAD, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke.

Non-modifiable Risk Factors of CAD

Some risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD) cannot be changed. Therefore, they are known as non-modifiable risk factors.

Non-modifiable risk factors are,

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Family history