There can be a big difference between the biological age of a person and the “vascular age”, a 30-year-old person can have the vasculature of a 60-year-old person. Impossible? Many people will have this reaction when they hear this statement, some will say “I do not feel any discomfort”, your feeling is not reliable. If you compare your blood vessels to a water pipe, there is a lot of scale and rust in the inner wall of the pipe, which is 50% clogged, and you still may not feel anything at all. No feeling does not mean no danger, once in some trigger may trigger a stroke, myocardial infarction, many sudden death may come from this way. Want to know the age of your blood vessels? What factors lead to the premature aging of your blood vessels? And how to keep your blood vessels “young”? After reading the current issue of Health Week, I believe you will have a good idea. Three indicators to assess the health of blood vessels There is a familiar saying in the field of cardiovascular medicine, “people live with their arteries”, which means that the aging of people is closely related to the degree of aging of blood vessels. Blood vessels nourish our lives, but we don’t really care about them. Professor Li Rong from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine said that the aging of blood vessels is a natural phenomenon, and the arteries are young when people are young, with large caliber, smooth walls, and good flexibility. As we age, the three vascular indicators mentioned above change, just like the water pipes in our homes, the inner walls of the pipes will scale and rust after a long time, and so will the blood vessels. This will not only make the blood vessel wall lumpy and no longer smooth, the caliber of the vessel wall is getting narrower and narrower, the flexibility of the vessel wall also decreases, the blood vessel starts to harden, the blood flow is blocked, more terrible, the “fibrous cap” on the surface of these plaques will rupture, causing the plaque contents to react with the blood, forming a blood clot in a short period of time, causing large blood clots in the brain or heart. This can cause sudden blockage of large blood vessels in the brain or heart, resulting in stroke or myocardial infarction. Dr. Fang Xianhong, chief physician of the Department of Cardiology of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, said that many people believe in their own feelings, saying that I do not feel any discomfort ah, this feeling is not reliable. When the blood vessel blockage 20-30% is no symptoms, when the blood vessel blockage 50% most people in most of the time still completely no feeling, only in special excitement or special exertion and other triggering factors, may appear heart, brain ischemia, or even directly induced stroke or myocardial infarction. Grandchildren’s age, grandfather’s blood vessels On the basis of the above-mentioned physiological aging, some people are affected by certain diseases or poor lifestyle (which will be explained in detail below), and their blood vessels will age prematurely, which is called pathological aging. Premature aging of blood vessels is not just abstract as the number on the test report, but is very intuitive and obvious. Dr. Xianhong Fang, chief physician, says that when performing vascular interventions or coronary angiograms on patients, you can see the condition of their blood vessels very visually. Some people are very young, around 30 to 40 years old, but their blood vessels are already as healthy as those of a 70- or 80-year-old man. Direct angiography shows curved vessels, lumpy walls, like worm infestations, and some blockages so severe that only a slit is left. If nurses want to give them a needle for intravenous rehydration, they can feel the poor elasticity of their blood vessels and the difficulty of entering the needle. In addition to patients with genetic disorders, most of these people have commonalities, such as being white-collar or gold-collar workers, working under stress, having bad habits such as smoking or drinking, staying up late, and having blood pressure or blood sugar values that are over the limit or close to the critical value. Likewise, the elderly with young blood vessels can also be encountered in the clinic from time to time. Dr. Fang Xianhong recalls that some elderly people are 70 or 80 years old and suddenly have pain in the anterior chest area, suspecting angina and undergoing coronary angiography, and the doctors are very “surprised” to see that the walls of the elderly’s blood vessels are smooth, smooth and elastic, and angina is often confirmed to be a false alarm. If you talk to these seniors, they often have a relatively healthy lifestyle. Early care of aging blood vessels is expected to reverse If you are unfortunate enough to be a young person whose blood has aged prematurely, do not be discouraged and start intervening as early as possible, aging blood vessels may still partially recover. Dr. Fang Xianhong, chief physician, suggests that for mild premature aging of blood vessels in young and middle-aged people, most of them do not need medication, but can be partially reversed through lifestyle interventions such as exercise, diet and mental regulation. For moderate to severe vascular premature aging, lifestyle interventions need to be accompanied by medications. Professor Li Rong warned that interventions for vascular health must be done before it is too late, starting at the age of 30 or 20, and not waiting until there is already high blood pressure or even angina before paying attention. In the medical field, there are even many voices calling for intervention in vascular health to be advanced even to children. Due to poor lifestyle habits, such as intake of large amounts of trans fatty acids, high sugar diet, lack of exercise, etc., lipid streaks can even be seen in the pathological examination of children’s blood vessel walls, which is an early manifestation of atherosclerosis. [Main article 2] Who “steals” the youth of blood vessels? {Large fish and meat at every meal} The blood vessels are easily blocked by large fish and meat at every meal. People in their thirties and forties are often out socializing, and the dishes in restaurants are mostly made with “high oil, high salt, high sugar” and “thick oil and sauce”, resulting in more and more fat in the blood vessels, which can easily block the blood vessels. {The majority of people over the age of thirty are the mainstay of the unit and inevitably become “late night people”. From a health perspective, 11 p.m. to 4 or 5 a.m. is the time to ensure that the liver metabolizes blood flow. When you stay up late, not only yourself, the cardiovascular biological clock will also be disrupted, resulting in excessive secretion of adrenaline and norepinephrine in the body, so that blood vessels constrict, blood flow is slow and viscosity increases. People who are chronically “black and white” will have double the risk of heart disease compared to normal people. == sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man {Two packs of cigarettes a day} Two packs of cigarettes a day, the blood vessels are easy to “poison”. “Smoking is one of the culprits of blood vessel malfunction, even if you are in good health, two packs of cigarettes a day, will certainly leave poison to the blood vessels, so that it is vulnerable day by day.” Research by American scientists for more than 50 years has shown that smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day increases the risk of coronary heart disease by two to three times. Other studies have found that smoking while staying up late raises the viscosity of the blood more than 8 times higher than normal. ==” Quit smoking! {Less exercise} Less exercise, more vascular waste. Lower extremity blood vessels are also important, but are often overlooked. If there is a problem with the blood vessels in the brain, the chances of having a heart attack are 2-3 times higher than normal, but if there is a problem with the blood vessels in the lower extremities, these chances become 4 times higher. Normal people have about 600 capillaries per square millimeter of skin, usually only 100-200 open, more exercise can make more capillaries open to promote blood microcirculation; and long-term non-exercise, the garbage in the blood vessels will gradually accumulate, the formation of atherosclerotic plaque this “untimely bomb “, will also affect the capillary blood supply, and may be detonated at any time. == sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man If you don’t want to exercise, you can do “vascular gymnastics” in the bathroom. Every night before bed with alternating hot and cold showers, hot water temperature of 40 ℃ – 44 ℃, cold water temperature of 12 ℃ – 16 ℃. Do the “exercise” first cold and then hot, alternating 5-10 times, each lasting 2-3 minutes, and finally end with a hot bath. This vascular gymnastics can promote blood circulation, timely “flush away” the garbage in the blood vessels. (Special reminder, if you already have cardiovascular disease, whether you can do vascular gymnastics to consult your doctor first.) {High blood pressure, diabetes} No symptoms or uncontrolled high blood pressure is the trigger for many vascular diseases. Patients with hypertension are 4-7 times more likely to have a cerebral infarction than normal people. And high blood sugar not only involves microvessels, but also leads to macrovascular disease. The incidence of stroke is 2-3 times higher in people with high blood sugar than in normal people. ==” Keep your blood pressure and blood sugar under control! {obesity} Obesity is easily associated with diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, thus making the aging of blood vessels much higher. ==” Both men and women should not position weight loss only at the level of seeking beauty, but should be recognized from the height of protecting the health of blood vessels. {bad mood} Bad mood hurts blood vessels. Swiss experts have recently confirmed that mental stress can cause vascular intima contraction, accelerating vascular aging and increasing the risk of sudden cardiac death. == sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man The first thing you need to do is to measure the age of your blood vessels. Method 1: (Total cholesterol – high-density cholesterol)/high-density cholesterol = atherosclerosis indicators (4 is the normal value, more than 4 is indicative of atherosclerosis, the greater the value represents the heavier the degree of hardening) Method 2: 1, the recent emotional depression. 2, too serious. 3.Love to eat convenience food and cookies, snacks. 4.Eating meat on the side. 5, lack of physical exercise. 6, the number of cigarettes per day multiplied by age more than 400. 7, chest pain when climbing stairs. 8.Cold and paralyzed hands and feet. 9.Frequent dropping of things. 10, high blood pressure. 11.High cholesterol or blood sugar level. 12.Someone in the relatives died of stroke or heart disease. The more the above items meet the higher the vascular age: those who meet the items in 0-4 are still normal vascular age, those who meet 5-7 are 10 older than the physiological age, those who reach 8-12 are 20 older than the physiological age. 【Allotment】These folk “vascular scavenger “Are they reliable? There are many folk food therapy recommendations for vascular health, such as red wine soaked onions, vinegar soaked peanuts, dark chocolate and so on. Do these foods really have the legendary efficacy? Zhao Yongyi, deputy director of clinical nutrition department of the first hospital affiliated with Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, answered for readers. {Red wine soaked onion} Recommendation index: ***** red wine and onion are good for blood vessel health food, is confirmed by scientific research. Onions contain two sulfide combinations, which have a cardiovascular protective effect; red wine contains strong antioxidants from grape skins and seeds, which are very good for vascular health. Zhao Yongyi hinted that, do not like the taste of red wine soaked onions, you can drink red wine or eat onions alone, as beneficial to blood vessels. {The vegetable oils contained in peanuts are unsaturated fatty acids, which have an antagonistic effect on our daily intake of animal fats, and therefore have the effect of lowering blood lipids. Vinegar is said to be able to dissolve the organic matter in peanuts, although its cardiovascular protective effect lacks scientific basis. Rinse your mouth promptly after meals to avoid damaging your teeth. In addition, people suffering from gastric ulcer and excessive stomach acid should not eat vinegar. Readers who are not used to vinegar soaked peanuts, eat peanuts directly can also play a role in the protection of blood vessels. But should not eat too much, 10 per day can be. Because the peanut itself is high in calories, too much intake will be converted into fat in the body. {Dark Chocolate} Recommendation index: **** The main component of chocolate is cocoa butter, cocoa butter is rich in polyphenols, with antioxidant function, can protect the body against a range of diseases, reduce the impact of aging. Germany, Sweden and other countries have “chocolate to prevent stroke” research. Researchers have found that moderate amounts of chocolate can indeed reduce the risk of stroke. Because dark chocolate contains flavonoids with antioxidant effects, it can prevent blood vessels from hardening, increase the vitality of the heart muscle, relax the muscle, which is good for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, so it is recommended to eat more dark chocolate with high cocoa butter. Zhao Yongyi hinted that when buying chocolate, pay attention to the ingredients list, if the “cocoa butter” used, it is not real chocolate, not only does not have the benefits of chocolate, but also because it contains trans fatty acids and harmful to the body. {green tea} Recommendation index: **** green tea and its tea polyphenols and other components have the role of lowering blood lipids, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, improve vascular endothelial function, anti-platelet aggregation, inhibit the formation of new blood vessels in the plaque and inhibit the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle. Secondly, green tea is rich in vitamins, which can strengthen microvessels, enhance vascular flexibility, elasticity and permeability, and prevent vascular sclerosis. (Special reminder: there are many other foods that are good for vascular health, such as hawthorn, lotus leaf, black sesame, etc.. But food for cardiovascular disease can only play an auxiliary therapeutic role, not a substitute for drugs) 【Allotment】 uncover the heart “hidden diseases”, can not rely solely on routine physical examination “a good person, how to say go away, just last month after a physical examination, did not find any problems? ” Whenever we hear of someone dying suddenly, we feel sorry for them while also feeling incomprehensible. As many as 550,000 people die from sudden cardiac death in China every year. This means that at least 1000 people die suddenly every day. Most people who die suddenly of cardiac origin have underlying heart disease, such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, hereditary cardiovascular disease, but there are also some patients who are insidious heart disease, ordinary physical examination is difficult to detect, once the disease is committed due to unprepared, more likely to die suddenly. Dr. Fang Xianhong, chief physician, introduced that many units of the physical examination is only to do an electrocardiogram. The human heart beats will produce a weak current, when it is connected to the body surface of the electrodes received, through the electrocardiograph will form a waveform, and was recorded on the electrocardiogram paper, it becomes an electrocardiogram. Electrocardiogram is currently a test to detect the basic physiology of the heart, including heart activity, beating fast and slow, whether the rhythm is neat, etc. Through electrocardiogram, doctors can have a basic and preliminary diagnosis of heart problems, but electrocardiogram mainly understands the condition of the heart during a small period of time before and after the examination, for example, when there is an acute attack of coronary heart disease will be detected by electrocardiogram, while most people are in the resting phase of coronary heart disease at the time of physical examination. Most people are in the resting phase of coronary artery disease at the time of physical examination, and the lesions are not detected by ECG in time. Dynamic ECG can continuously record the whole process of 24 hours of ECG activity, including rest, activity, meal, work, study and sleep, etc. It can detect arrhythmias and myocardial ischemia that are not easily detected by conventional ECG, which is better than ordinary ECG examination, Fang Xianhong suggested that dynamic ECG mainly monitors the ECG situation through 3 leads, and cannot understand the whole heart ischemia. Therefore, it is easy to miss the diagnosis of occult heart disease by only checking ECG or ECG. Dr. Fang Xianhong, chief physician, said that many patients with cardiovascular disease have narrowed arteries, but the arterial blood flow can still be maintained normal in the state of rest and relaxation without myocardial ischemia, and the ECG can be completely normal, resulting in a missed diagnosis. Therefore, medical science can induce myocardial ischemia by loading the heart with exercise or drug loading to increase myocardial oxygen consumption. Common tests include the flat panel exercise test and the stress echocardiogram. It is recommended that people over 40 years of age, especially those with hypertension, diabetes, or coronary artery disease in the family, have these tests done once a year. The flat exercise test is to have the patient wear an ECG device and walk on a treadmill-like device to increase myocardial oxygen consumption and induce myocardial ischemia by changing the speed and incline of running to detect hidden heart disorders. If it is obvious that there is myocardial ischemia, we should suspect coronary artery disease, and then do CT or coronary angiography to see if the coronary arteries are narrowed. For people who are too old or have knee problems that make them unfit for running, they can choose to have a stress echocardiogram. This test is applied to compare the echocardiogram to observe the load state (which can be increased by taking medication) with what is seen in the resting state echocardiogram to understand the status of the subject’s cardiovascular system response to load. [Article – Treatment] To lower cholesterol, look at the “color” and act! Cholesterol is closely related to vascular health. Cholesterol control is essential for vascular care and the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Many people think they are fine once their cholesterol reaches the “standard” through lifestyle changes or taking lipid-lowering drugs, and then stop taking them. The more at-risk people are, the lower their cholesterol needs to be. At present, most hospitals in China still use lipid test reports as the reference value for normal people, and the “one-size-fits-all” reference range makes many people at high cardiovascular risk think that their lipid levels are normal, delaying the time to seek medical attention. “Bad cholesterol can clog blood vessels Many people think that cholesterol must be bad whenever they see it. In fact, there are good and bad cholesterol. There are two main types of cholesterol: high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). The former has a protective effect on cardiovascular and is the “good cholesterol”; the latter will adhere to the blood vessel wall and once excessive, it will lead to atherosclerosis and is therefore called the “bad cholesterol”. Therefore, when we talk about lowering cholesterol, we are referring to lowering LDL cholesterol, the “bad cholesterol”. When the “bad cholesterol” in the blood increases, small plaques are formed on the walls of blood vessels, which gradually block the blood vessels and slow down the blood flow, causing cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and strokes. What is more dangerous is that the unstable plaque will rupture or fall off and block the blood vessel in a short time, leading to acute myocardial infarction or stroke and endangering the patient’s life. High cholesterol is the main culprit of two major cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease and stroke. The higher the cholesterol risk, the lower the cholesterol control. The risk of cardiovascular disease varies from population to population. Internationally, “red, orange, yellow and green” are commonly used to indicate the degree of vascular health: red indicates very high risk; orange indicates high risk; yellow indicates medium risk; and green indicates low risk. Red, orange, yellow and green represent the risk of cardiovascular events in the next 10 years, warning us to pay attention to cholesterol from now on to reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular accidents. A patient’s overall risk level needs to be evaluated based on a combination of risk factors, including hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, history of stroke, and information including age (≥45 years for men and ≥55 years for women), smoking, low high-density cholesterol level, obesity and a family history of vascular disease need to be considered. The higher the overall risk level of the patient, the lower the bad cholesterol level must be controlled. For example, for a patient at “green” low risk, a cholesterol level of 4.14 mmol/L would be sufficient. But for a patient who has been in the “red” very high risk category, the cholesterol level must be kept below 2.07 mmol/L. Once patients know the “health color” (risk level) of their blood vessels, they can determine their cholesterol control goals based on the different colors. You can really control your cholesterol with a “number” in mind! Long-term intervention for high-risk groups In clinical practice, cardiologists are often asked by patients with coronary heart disease, “My cholesterol level is normal after taking lipid-lowering drugs, so I can stop taking them, right?” In fact, about 70% of bad cholesterol is synthesized by the body itself, and this synthesis is ongoing. Therefore, for orange risk coronary heart disease and stroke patients, as well as the many patients who have just had a heart attack or diabetes combined with coronary heart disease, the arrows on the labs only indicate that cholesterol levels have been controlled for a short period of time, but it does not mean that the risk has disappeared because the atherosclerotic plaques in their bodies are already widespread. Without continued control, bad cholesterol continues to be synthesized and accumulated, and plaques will appear again, making the blood vessels weak and vulnerable to breakage. Dr. Fang Xianhong, chief physician, said that cholesterol control needs to be a long-term and continuous process, and once the medication is stopped, the treatment effect will be greatly reduced. At present, cholesterol-lowering drugs (also commonly known as “lipid-lowering drugs” are mainly statins, and it is recommended that patients with cardiovascular diseases adhere to long-term, adequate use, in addition to lowering lipids, these drugs also have anti-inflammatory and plaque stabilization effects.