It's the Barbile Medicine podcast where we bring modern medicine to strength and

strength and conditioning to modern medicine. I'm your host Dr. Jordan Figenbaum.

In this podcast episode 278 we're going to be talking about a brand new calculator for estimating heart disease risk.

The heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. In the United States the prevalence of heart

disease is increasing and is currently estimated to affect over 120 million

adults over the age of 20. The most common type of heart disease is due to

atherosclerosis, A gradual lifelong process where cholesterol-rich

plaques accumulate in the blood vessels and can lead to complications in various organs like the heart,

brain, and other vital organs.

Risk factors for atherosclerosis include high blood pressure, elevated

ldiel cholesterol, smoking, and metabolic abnormalities like diabetes

that cumulatively increase risk over time.

These and other risk factors effects are well characterized

and have been incorporated into a number of widely used calculators

that are used to estimate an individual's risk for having heart attack, stroke, or developing heart disease over a given period of time.

Until recently, most calculators were used to estimate a 10-year risk in adults over the age of 40 based on data collected over a decade ago.

That is, until now.

Recently, the American Heart Association has released a heart disease risk calculator called Prevent,

which stands for predicting risk of

cardiovascular disease events and not only does it claim to be able to estimate

risk up to 30 years in advance using the most recent data it also includes

adults as young as 30.

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