Cardiology Specialist Prof. Dr. Mehmet Mustafa Can, who warned about the protection of heart health, said, “We now see very often that heart attacks are triggered in patients living under intense stress, sudden cardiac deaths, common vascular disease, and late response to treatment. Patients living under chronic stress seem to be candidates for a heart attack. Smoking in heart disease means committing suicide. Smoking and unhealthy foods both hit the heart, exacerbate and trigger heart disease, and make it worse if there is an underlying condition.”
Many factors such as genetic factors, intensive processed food consumption, smoking, alcohol use, sedentary life and stress affect heart health. Stating that periodic checks on heart health are of great importance, experts frequently warn citizens. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Mustafa Can from the Cardiology Department of Medicana Zincirlikuyu Hospital also gave important advice while talking about issues such as smoking, stress and shock diets.
“Smoking in heart disease means committing suicide”
Explaining that genetic transmission, people's lifestyle and other diseases affect heart health, Cardiology Specialist Prof. Dr. Mehmet Mustafa Can said, “The genetic condition we get from our family appears as a burden, if we have uncontrolled diabetes, if we have blood pressure, if we smoke, it affects us negatively, intense stress, let me talk about chronic stress; this stress also increases our risk of heart attack. Patients who live under chronic stress and have high risk factors seem to be candidates for a heart attack. Male patients aged 40-50 years, post-menopausal women are at increased risk of heart attack, and we frequently encounter these patients in our clinical practice. We say that uncontrolled obesity equals cardiovascular risk factors. We define metabolic syndrome as having a body mass index of a certain weight, blood pressure disease and a very high fat profile. The harms of smoking have been talked about for centuries, we know that patients who smoke have both heart and lung diseases and some other diseases. Smoking in heart disease means committing suicide, it affects our current treatments and increases the prevalence of vascular disease. It leads to sudden heart attacks, stroke, blood pressure irregularities, etc. Smoking is a very important risk factor in terms of cardiovascular risk factors, especially if you have a genetic burden from your family, and if you smoke on top of that, you are poisoning yourself. Organic, unnatural foods that we do not know what they contain, their fat profile, everything that is not natural is harmful to our lives.”
“We frequently see triggering of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths in patients living under intense stress”
Stating that the effort to lose weight quickly without expert control in a short time is very wrong, Prof. Dr. Can continued his words as follows:
“There are those who apply shock diets about diets, there are those who say 'I gained weight very fast, let me lose weight fast'. There are diets that are only rich in protein and carbohydrates, you lose weight very quickly, but this weight loss is not from fat loss, but from muscle, water and mineral loss. These put stress on the body, and there are many diseases that lead to chronic depression, rapid weight gain, insulin resistance disorder, blood pressure irregularities, sudden heart attacks and metabolic disorders. We know that Mediterranean-type nutrition provides very important benefits in cardiovascular diseases, corrects the patient's fat profile, protects the integrity of the vascular structure, reduces the risk of crisis, and improves the patient's cholesterol profile. What we mean by Mediterranean type is not to restrict meat, of course there will be meat in it, but in moderation and balance. Eating only one meal a day with only one food or drinking only water, eating only protein or carbohydrates to lose weight fast disrupts the balance of the body. The ideal is a diet such as losing 0.5-1 kilograms per week, our dietitian friends often say. When there is a stress load on the heart, cortisol balance, insulin resistance is disrupted, blood pressure drops, arrhythmia problems occur, and the patient's risk factors change. This leads to sudden heart attacks, sudden high blood pressure, sudden strokes, fainting, depressions and confusion. Stress is one of the most important risk factors today. Stress is now a part of our lives, especially in cities such as metropolises; the intensity of traffic in the morning, the intensity of business life, the irregularity or regularity of our family life. In patients living under intense stress, we often see triggering of heart attacks, sudden cardiac deaths, common vascular diseases, difficult treatment, difficult patient compliance, late response to treatment, and so on. The patient can receive psychiatric and spiritual support. For our health, our blood pressure should be regular, we should drink water regularly and do sports. Smoking and unhealthy foods both hit the heart and exacerbate and trigger heart disease, making it worse if there is an underlying condition. We see heart attacks very frequently in women after menopause, there are those who suffer from heart attacks at younger ages; we see them at younger ages in those with a high genetic burden, those with familial disease, those with congenital or structural heart disease.”
