What is Cardiometabolic Health in 2024?

What is Cardiometabolic Health

Knowing what is cardiometabolic health is important for a healthy lifestyle. Cardiometabolic health is the overall health of the cardiovascular system and the body’s metabolic processes.

It includes blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and body weight regulation. Cardiometabolic health is a combination of these risk factors. 

Maintaining good cardiometabolic health and knowing what cardiometabolic disease is reduces the risk of developing chronic illnesses. 

Importance of Cardiometabolic Health

Cardiometabolic health is important to prevent chronic conditions like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. People can maintain good cardiometabolic health by eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and having a healthy lifestyle. 

Knowing what is cardiometabolic health also helps people improve their quality of life by promoting energy intake, mental clarity, and physical well-being. 

Poor Cardiometabolic health can lead to severe complications and a reduced life expectancy. According to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, survey research concluded that only 6.8% of the US population had preferable cardiometabolic health. 

Not only that, it heavily impacted blood sugar levels by decreasing them from 59% to 37% between 2000 and 2018. 

Hence, it is beneficial to prioritize cardiovascular health so people can enjoy longer and healthier lives. 

Relationship Between Cardiovascular Disease and Metabolic Disorders 

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and metabolic disorders are closely linked and cause diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Due to disruption in metabolic processes, blood sugar level rises, cholesterol level increases, and blood pressure exceeds which results in cardiovascular diseases. 

Conditions like these result in a plaque build-up which then leads to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis can result in heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular illnesses. 

Key Components of Cardiometabolic Health

There are a few key components that need to be strictly managed and are important when learning about what is cardiometabolic health:

• Blood Pressure

Maintaining healthy blood pressure levels is important to reduce the risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney damage. High blood pressure, or hypertension stresses the heart. It can also damage arteries leading to cardiovascular complications. 

• Cholesterol Levels

Keeping balanced cholesterol levels that include low LDL (bad cholesterol) and high HDL (good cholesterol) is very important. Sometimes plaque builds up in the arteries, which then leads to atherosclerosis and heart disease.

• Blood Sugar Control

Having proper blood sugar prevents people from insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Both are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Moreover, constant high blood sugar can also damage blood vessels and lead to life-threatening complications. 

• Body Weight

It is important to maintain a healthy weight since it reduces pressure on the heart. Balancing body weight also helps reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, helps you manage diabetes, and lessens the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

• Physical Activity

Exercising regularly is important for maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. All of it contributes to overall cardiometabolic health.

• Diet

A balanced diet is crucial for maintaining cardiovascular health. The diet should have food like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. A healthy diet supports healthy cholesterol levels and controls blood sugar effectively. 

Factors Contributing to Cardiometabolic Risk

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) research your chances of developing heart disease, stroke, or type 2 diabetes increase due to cardiometabolic risk factors. 

Knowing what cardiometabolic health is is important because it directly influences how you use your knowledge of cardiometabolic risks. 

Factors that contribute to cardiometabolic risks are:

1. Lifestyle choices
2. Genetics

Lifestyle Choices

Lifestyle choices play a significant role in determining cardiometabolic risks. The lifestyle factors that impact cardiometabolic diseases are:

• Poor Diet: Highly processed foods, unhealthy fats, and sugars should be taken in large quantities. 
• Lack of Physical Activity: Lack of physical activity leads to an inactive lifestyle. Inactivity increases the risks of obesity and poor metabolic health. 
• Smoking: Smoking damages a person’s blood vessels, increases blood pressure, and builds up plaque. 
• Excessive Alcohol Consumption:  Excessive alcohol consumption aids in weight gain.
• Chronic Stress: Chronic stress increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
• Poor Sleep Patterns: Poor sleep patterns disturb metabolic processes and increase insulin resistance.

Genetics

The following risk factors can contribute to cardiometabolic disorders:

• Inherited Conditions: There is a higher chance of having hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol in a person who has had someone in the family with the same disease. 
• Family History of Cardiometabolic Diseases: There is a higher risk of having cardiometabolic diseases if a person has had them in family history. 

Symptoms and Treatment of Cardiometabolic Disease 

When you learn about what is a cardiometabolic disease, you will get to know about its impact on increasing heart diseases and stroke. Recognizing their signs and symptoms is important. 

Early detection of diseases helps prevent severe complications. If high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes are detected at an early stage, the risk of long-term damage to the heart and other organs is reduced. 

Symptoms of High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

1. Headaches
2. Dizziness 
3. Blurred vision
4. Shortness of breath
5. Chest pain

Treatment

Lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise are effective. Medications like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, or diuretics are also suggested. 

Symptoms of High Cholesterol

Often symptomless, but it can lead to:
 

1. Xanthomas
2. yellowish deposits under the skin

Treatment

People can work on their diet and reduce saturated fat usage. If prescribed, cholesterol-reducing medication helps to elevate cholesterol levels. Physical exercise is also recommended. 

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes

1. Increased thirst
2. Frequent urination
3. Fatigue 
4. Blurred vision
5. Slow-healing sores
6. Unexplained weight loss

Treatment

Diet changes are recommended. People with Type 2 diabetes should also exercise regularly, manage weight, and take insulin therapy if necessary.

BodyK suggests an excellent meal plan for Insulin resistance that you can check out in case you want to avoid insulin usage. 

The Role of Prevention and Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers play an important role in making patients understand what is cardiometabolic disease and why it is important to prevent it. They also conduct regular screenings to monitor blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. 

If you want a quick way to assess your wellness, you can take preventive biometric screening by BodyK. Through this process, you can get a report about your health in only 7 minutes. 

Here’s how it works, first, your details are set up in the system. Then, you’ll have disposable electrodes placed on your forehead and feet, a cuff on your left arm, and a small device called a pulse oximeter on your right-hand finger.

This setup checks for important health markers like PTGI, which tells us about the health of your blood vessels, and PTG-TP, which looks for signs of insulin resistance.

A study revealed that this non-invasive method can be quite useful and cost-effective since it only requires an oximeter and a galvanic skin response device.

One way to avoid chronic conditions is to get an early diagnosis. Healthcare providers can use this screening for an early diagnosis that might help their patients maintain maximum cardiometabolic health. 

People Also Ask

Understanding what is cardiometabolic health and its importance is necessary to prevent chronic diseases. Individuals can improve their overall well-being by adopting a healthy lifestyle choice and taking regular screenings. 

Prioritizing the mentioned majors will help people lead a healthy and safe lifestyle.