‘The heart: to protect it, we need screening programmes, just as we do for cancer’
Simple tests carried out as early as school age and close monitoring of risk factors ranging from cholesterol to diet and pollution: Giuseppe Patti, president-elect of the Italian Society of Cardiology, sets out the formula for truly effective prevention
‘As many as one in six Italians suffers from cardiovascular disease, to the extent that 150,000 heart attacks are recorded in the country every year, whilst overall, a third of all deaths are attributable to cardiovascular causes. This is twice the number of deaths from cancer, although the perceived epidemiological, health and economic impact of heart disease is significantly lower, which explains why people are less motivated to engage in primary prevention and to follow treatment. Systematic screening should therefore be introduced, just as is done in oncology, where widespread testing saves millions of lives’. Giuseppe Patti, president-elect of the Italian Society of Cardiology (SIC), which he will take the helm of in 2029, is fully committed to implementing a preventive approach across ‘his’ Novara region, starting with schools. Originally from Calabria, he is currently a full professor of Cardiovascular Diseases at the Department of Translational Medicine and director of Cardiology and the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Department at the ‘Maggiore della Carità’ University Hospital in Novara.
What advice should be given, and from what age?
The risk factors which, if present, increase the likelihood of having a heart attack or a stroke are well known, but we do not always bear them in mind. As many as half of these conditions can be attributed to the five most important and well-known risk factors: obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes mellitus. Addressing these factors has a positive impact on all cardiovascular events. The other half consists of so-called lifestyle-related risk factors: for example, a lack of physical activity, whilst the recommendations state that the standard should be 20–30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity for at least 5 days a week. Dietary habits are also important; the Mediterranean diet, with its balanced content of fats, sugars, fruit and vegetables, offers ‘protection’, so much so that at least 200 grams of fruit or vegetables are recommended daily, along with 30 grams of nuts, which play a ‘protective’ role. Furthermore, there are other, decidedly underestimated non-traditional risk factors, such as alcohol consumption, which is a scourge on society: it should be remembered that a maximum of one glass of wine with a meal is acceptable for men and one per day for women.
From what age does all this start?
There is no specific age at which to ‘start’: cardiovascular prevention is a continuum that begins in the first thousand days of life. It begins as early as pregnancy; indeed, the expectant mother helps prevent cardiovascular disease in her child by managing gestational diabetes or high blood pressure. Another major problem is the rise in childhood obesity, and it is no coincidence that there is growing awareness of the negative impact of being overweight, even from early childhood. This is an issue that scientific societies should prioritise and address from school age onwards.
