health screenings

Why Your Heart Disease Risk May Not Be as High as You Think

@aliceparkny | 

Doctors may be overestimating risk for heart problems, which means some people may be prescribed drugs they don’t need

Heart disease is the leading killer of Americans, so predicting who is at highest risk of heart attack or stroke is a top priority. After decades of relying on a checklist of risk factors identified in the 1950s, which included factors like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, excessive weight gain and family history of heart trouble, heart experts decided to update the formula for calculating risk in 2013.

The new formula focused less on specific cholesterol targets and instead created an algorithm of the most significant risk factors, each weighted for how much they might contribute to heart issues. The problem, as many doctors quickly pointed out, was that the new formula seemed to loosen the criteria for putting people on medications, especially ones that lower cholesterol. Simply being older, for example, could push a person into higher risk territory that would warrant a statin prescription, even if this person ate a healthy diet, got plenty of exercise and wasn’t overweight or hypertensive. So this raised serious questions about whether everyone who qualified for treatment under the new guidelines actually needed it.

In a new report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers found that the new recommendations, created by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC), overestimates the risk of heart trouble up to five to six times. That means that five to six times as many people may be prescribed drugs like cholesterol-lowering statins who won’t necessarily benefit from them.

Rio Hondo Faculty receive Longevity Health Screenings

Destinee Ortiz, Staff Writer | 

Photo by Aaron Martinez/ El Paisano Faculty can receive health screenings at a discounted price through Longevity.

Photo by Aaron Martinez/ El Paisano
Faculty can receive health screenings at a discounted price through Longevity.

Longevity, a medical company that travels from business to business, provided Rio Hondo faculty members with on-campus preventative screenings on April 6.

Faculty, along with family and friends, were invited to participate in the screenings.  On-site examination tents were set up so patients could comfortably be examined in a familiar medical environment.

“It’s [the screening] preventative measures, making sure there’s (sic) no issues before there’s (sic) actually symptoms,” ultrasound technician Jay Torres said.

Torres, along with other sonographers from Longevity, travel to different businesses and schools throughout Southern California to perform on-site early detection screenings.

At Quality Mobile Ultrasound our primary focus is on building strong, lasting partnerships with the practices, providers and patients which we engage in business.