How Heart Disease Really Starts — And How to Stop It

https://www.dralexnewsletter.com/ Join the community by signing up to my daily newsletter! Practical health advice, straight to your inbox, every morning. Could the damage behind a heart attack or stroke already be building quietly in your arteries, years before you feel a single symptom? Heart disease starts far earlier in life than we tend to assume, and the early warning signs of a narrowing artery often get put down to indigestion, tiredness or simply getting older. Cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and blood sugar all shape how plaque forms, and how quickly it grows is something you can influence every single day. Working in A&E, I see what a heart attack looks like when someone comes through the doors, and the picture can be far less obvious than crushing chest pain. In this video I go through the symptoms that get missed, from breathlessness walking uphill to calf cramps that ease when you stop, and I share what happened when my own dad had a heart attack at around forty. I also look at the research showing artery damage in soldiers in their early twenties, what the Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon can teach us about keeping arteries clear into our seventies, and why diet, cooking from scratch, daily steps and checking your numbers at home make such a difference to heart health and stroke prevention. In this video you'll learn: -The heart attack symptoms that often get mistaken for indigestion or tiredness -How cardiovascular disease links heart attacks, strokes, peripheral arterial disease and vascular dementia -What happens in the artery lining as fatty streaks slowly turn into plaque -What autopsy studies of young soldiers revealed about early atherosclerosis -Why the Tsimane have some of the healthiest arteries ever recorded -The simple food rule I use to protect my arteries -How to check your blood pressure properly at home -Which blood tests to ask for, including cholesterol and HbA1c Whether you have a family history of heart disease, have been told your blood pressure or cholesterol is creeping up, or simply want to protect your heart, brain and kidneys for the decades ahead, these are changes you can start making today. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Introduction 02:04 – Heart Disease or Cardiovascular Disease? 03:28 – What Heart Disease Looks Like in A&E 06:32 – My Dad's Heart Attack 08:49 – How It Really Starts 11:30 – Why It Isn't Just Ageing 13:13 – Why Food Comes First 16:59 – Know Your Numbers 19:15 – Bringing It All Together REFERENCES Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases and Risk Factors, 1990-2019: Update From the GBD 2019 Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33309... Coronary disease among United States soldiers killed in action in Korea; preliminary report https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13052... Prevalence and extent of atherosclerosis in adolescents and young adults: implications for prevention from the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth Study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10052... Determinants of atherosclerosis in the young. Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) Research Group https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9860371/ Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28320... Epidemiologic studies of coronary heart disease and stroke in Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California. Incidence of myocardial infarction and death from coronary heart disease https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/835482/ Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35247... High prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis in asymptomatic teenagers and young adults: evidence from intravascular ultrasound https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11390... Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case-control study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15364... Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30638... Disclaimer: This is not personal medical advice and does not override what your doctor says. #dralex #doctoralex #heartdisease #hearthealth #cholesterol #heartattack