Heart disease is one of the biggest public health issues for Americans today, with 92.1 million adults living with some form of heart disease in 2018
It is also responsible for 836,546 deaths every year, which means someone is dying of heart disease every 38 seconds.
While these statistics are understandably shocking, they aren’t a surprise. For many American citizens, facing a battle with heart disease and poor heart health is inevitable.
Even those who don’t experience it themselves are likely to know someone who has lived with, or died from, heart disease.
One thing that might surprise you to know is that heart disease is mostly preventable, meaning there are measures and natural treatment for high blood pressure that you can take today to prevent suffering in the future.
Renown cardiologist Simon Stertzer M.D. says that paying meticulous attention to blood pressure, diet, physical activity, and blood lipid treatments can delay or decrease the numbers of increasing heart failure in post-heart attack victims.
These measures are not just useful for those who have experienced heart disease or poor heart health in the past, however.
In fact, everyone should be paying attention to the things mentioned by Simon Stertzer, as they can help to avoid common risk factors associated with heart disease.
These risk factors include:
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Lack of physical activity
- Obesity
- Poor Diet
Keeping an eye on these risk factors isn’t easy, however, and in some cases, it is even impossible.
This is why many leading cardiovascular consultants, including Simon Stertzer M.D, promote the use of technology in preventing heart disease and poor heart health.
One example Simon Stertzer M.D specifically provides is the Fitbit Charge 3, which can be used as an out-of-hospital aid that helps to detect sleep apnea, a common indication of poor heart health.
Thanks to this technological device, and others like it, potential worrying symptoms can be picked up on in the early stages through a device that can be picked up on over the counter.
This means that even if you’re too busy to commit to the invasive, overnight stays that would usually be used to detect this issue, and other heart disease issues, you can access devices that will help you.
In fact, technology is such an important part of maintain heart health today that it has been endorsed by the American Heart Association itself, and there’s far more too explore than the Fitbit alone.
Here are just some of the technological advances that you can use to prevent heart disease and poor heart health in general.
Chatbots
Digital Authority Partners describes chatbots as “[an] automated channel for collecting information that doctors can use to make a health assessment or to help decide what medicine, if any, should be prescribed”.
Heart diseases are a very common illness suffered by Americans, as stated further up in this article, so intelligent chatbots are great for collecting relevant information that can make a doctor’s work far easier.
These chatbots will collect routine information about a patient, and send it directly to the primary physician of the individual to be assessed without having to see the patient directly.
With this information being passed along in such a manner, a physician is able to remotely assess the health of their patients, making the medical billing for heart diseases—or those at risk of developing one—far easier to obtain. The process of medical billing has been more easier with the use of a Specialty Medical Billing or Medical Billing and Coding Program. Many of the professional medical coders are attending Online CPC Classes to ensure medical records feature accurate and complete clinical documentation.
These chatbots can also be used in those who have had heart attacks, or already experience heart disease, to manage their symptoms.
However, with routine chatbots offered to people over a certain age, as age is another risk factor associated with heart disease, chatbots could easily become a leading way of preventing heart disease and poor heart health in general in older adults.
Telemedicine Apps
In 2016, the American Heart Association published a policy encouraging the use of telehealth applications including a good Telehealth Network Provider to improve cardiovascular care.
These applications offer audio and video calls with a physician or a cardiologist in San Diego, and allow people to communicate without having to visit the hospital or office of the professional in question.
This can help to prevent heart disease and poor heart health as it enables people to ask for advice and receive it fast, without having to battle with long waiting lists.
At the moment, the most effective use of these telemedicine apps have been to monitor patients implanted with cardiac devices.
Using this method has meant that clinical professionals have been able to remotely manage and diagnose arrhythmias and heart failure systems faster, leading to better clinical outcomes.
There have been some criticisms about the effectiveness of telemedicine apps, with critics claiming they cannot replace in-person appointments completely, but they do work well to maintain contact between consultant and patient between visits.
AI Algorithms
According to Healthcareweekly, when it comes to looking into the innovations of heart disease treatment, you cannot exclude the latest research into AI algorithms and their potential to change the way we look at cardiovascular health in the future.
The AI algorithm in question was created by health-techs from Google, and is called Verily.
It promises to be a major way of preventing heart disease and poor heart health in the future by detecting heart issues simply by glancing at a patient’s eyes.
Research found this possible as the wall of the eye hides an entire network of blood vessels, allowing the eye scans to reveal key signs of heart disease, like high blood pressure.
In fact, this device is so impressive that it can predict heart disease in patients before they even have it.
At the moment, it’s considered to be 70% accurate when it comes to determining whether a patient will suffer with a heart issue in the next five years.
Knowing this information enables cardiovascular consultants, and primary care physicians, to work with their patients to improve their health and lower the risk factors causing their heart disease risk.
This could include measures like eating a healthier diet, and incorporating exercise into their everyday routine.
In a lot of cases, scaremongering is an effective health education tool, so the AI algorithm results within themselves could be enough to spark the motivation someone needs to go through with making positive life changes.