The direct connection between brain health and heart health may not be obvious, but there is a good reason why the American Stroke Association is a division of the American Heart Association: What is good for the heart is good for the brain.
We continue to learn more about how following a heart-healthy lifestyle can lower your chances of having a stroke and that it can also make a big difference in your mental abilities as you age.
The AHA has defined ideal heart health to include measures for getting active, eating better, losing weight, stopping smoking, controlling cholesterol, managing blood pressure and reducing blood sugar.
New studies have shown that physical inactivity and obesity, behaviors that affect heart health, can contribute to dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. This occurs because these risk factors can lead to narrowing of the blood vessels, which reduces blood flow to the brain, and hardening of the arteries of the heart and brain.
When your brain doesn’t get the blood flow it needs, it can begin to malfunction, impacting memory or cognitive issues. If blood flow to the brain is suddenly blocked, you could even have a stroke.
Stroke and heart diseases are largely preventable, and yet 2,900 lives in Hawaii are lost to these causes every year.
Having completed my neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, I was trained to care for stroke patients who were commonly older in age. Since moving to Hawaii a couple years ago, I immediately observed a new kind of stroke patient — one at least a generation younger than those in Boston, which prompted my study of this age differential.
Although Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have been reported to have a higher burden of cardiovascular diseases compared with other major ethnic groups, the comparisons related to stroke in this population have not been adequately studied.
The results of this retrospective study were that in both ischemic (blood clot) and hemorrhagic (burst vessel) strokes, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are younger (by approximately 10 years) and have a higher burden of cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, compared with Caucasians. The ischemic stroke patients were also more likely to be female.
According to the state Department of Health, heart disease was the No. 1 cause of death in Honolulu, Hawaii and Maui counties and among Native Hawaiians, Filipinos and Japanese in Hawaii in 2009.
And every year, more than 900 women in Hawaii die from heart disease. It is the No. 1 killer of women and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined.
Because it is the leading cause of death in our islands and the United States, February has been dedicated as American Heart Month, helping to increase awareness that heart health is a priority.
The best gift we can give ourselves and those we love is prioritizing our health. Start by learning your heart health score by taking a quick, free online health assessment at the AHA’s My Life Check, www.mylifecheck.org Opens in a new tab, to help you understand what simple steps you need to take to improve your heart health and quality of life.
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Dr. Kazuma Nakagawa is a neurointensivist and vascular neurologist at The Queen’s Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.
