The Correlation between Childhood Obesity, Cardiac Health, and Body Mass Index

 Childhood obesity may have several adverse effects on an individual’s well-being later in the years. As it is national childhood obesity awareness month, it is essential to discuss the impact of childhood obesity on a person’s cardiac output and heart health.

The correlation between BMI and cardiac output

Healthcare practitioners depend on cardiology diagnostic tests, such as Cardiac Telemetry, echocardiogram,  Pulmonary artery catheterization, and others, to evaluate their patients’ heart health. According to an NCBI study, hemodynamic monitoring in obese patients shows the impact of body mass index (BMI) on cardiac output and stroke volume. The study was focused on evaluating the reliability of cardiac hemodynamics in normal and obese patients.

The researchers found that BMI was positively correlated with cardiac output and stroke volume. “Each 1 kg/m increase in BMI was associated with a 0.08 L/min (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06-0.10; p < .001) increase in CO and 1.35 mL (95% CI, 0.96-1.74; p < .001) increase in SV.”

The study further emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy body mass index among patients. While medical practitioners usually rely on cardiology diagnostic tests, such as cardiac telemetry, to get accurate cardiac output results, it is equally important to promote an active lifestyle among patients. Childhood obesity may invite serious heart problems that can be prevented by:

Healthy eating habits

The first rule of eating right is not skipping meals. Children should be taught to eat on time instead of overeating later. In addition, they should be given balanced meals and kept away from unhealthy junk food.

Changing cooking habits

Children love to eat different foods instead of repeating a few meals. Alternative cooking techniques like baking, broiling, roasting, stewing, and steaming will help keep them interested and healthy.

Physical activity

The biggest reason behind childhood obesity is the lack of physical activity. So, it is always better to send children to a park than to keep them indulged in video games.

The bottom line

Healthcare professionals can use cardiology diagnostic tests, such as ECGs, Stress Tests, Holter Monitoring, Cardiac Telemetry monitoring, and others, to determine cardiac health among children with obesity by checking, measuring, and monitoring their blood pressure, stress levels, and vital signs, such as pulse rate and respiration rate.

It is also important to educate children on ways to reduce the risk of developing obesity and heart disease. Preventing childhood obesity can be a significant step towards ensuring better heart health among them in adulthood.

 

 

Cardiac Telemetry: Benefits Of Monitoring Cardiac Health

 

Our heart functions with about 2.5 billion beats over a lifetime and 100,000 each day. An organ that works rigorously should be looked after.

 

High Blood Pressure and Stroke Awareness Month - MAY 2021

The month of May sheds light on cardiac health with its National Stroke Awareness Month, National High Blood Pressure Education Month, and Women’s Health Week. Heart health is an essential topic among most of the population, given that stroke is common these days. As a preventative measure against stroke, you should understand the importance of cardiac telemetry monitoring and controlling blood pressure.

 

Facts For Knowledge

●       Stroke is a preventable cause of disability.

●      In the United States, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds, and every four minutes, someone dies suffering from it.

●   Stroke is the 5th leading cause of death for adults in the US, resulting in more than 130,000 deaths each year.

 

Importance Of Cardiac Telemetry Monitoring

Healthcare providers use cardiac telemetry by connecting electrodes to specific areas on the skin around the chest, stomach, and even limbs. Each following wire from the electrodes is attached to a recording device that tracks and monitors your heart’s activity. Further, it sends information to a monitoring device in another location where a doctor accesses the data.

 

Using cardiac telemetry has several advantages-

1. Early Detection: Several heart diseases exist; some are to the extent that they may kill any person. That’s why it’s essential to monitor cardiac health and look out for required prevention if any. Telemetry allows the detection of potential risks and diseases related to the heart early on.
2. Saves Money: Every telemetry system type saves financial resources. Meaning, it eliminates the requirement for employing extra staff on hourly pay. Additionally, cardiac telemetry saves a great deal of money for both the insurance providers and the customers. This technology enables the users to monitor their health at the convenience of their homes, cutting out on the cost of unnecessary hospital stays and frequent visits.
3. Saves Healthcare Worker’s Time: Cardiac telemetry allows practitioners to examine patients’ health without needing to sit with them. So, professionals can delegate their time to other patients on the premises. The monitor built into the system alerts when something unusual is detected in their heart’s electrical waves. In this way, nurses and doctors can pay attention to the patients who need urgent medical care.

 

Conclusion

Sometimes we put our heart’s health to risk unknowingly. It’s essential to monitor a patient’s heart health from time to time. Get to know more about our Nasiff CardioCard™ Telemetry and CardioCard™ Mobile Resting PC Based ECG System. Get in touch with us today!

 

National Nutrition Awareness Month: Healthy Food Choices You Should Make

 Every year, March is celebrated as National Nutrition Awareness Month By the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign majorly focuses on healthy nutritional choices, creating a sound eating pattern, and partaking in physical activities to reduce the risk of chronic disease, maintain a healthy weight, and promote overall health. 

 Here are some healthy food choices you must consider to start eating right on this National Nutrition Awareness Month.

Start with breakfast

Grabbing an apple for breakfast isn’t a healthy way to start your mornings. Your breakfast should include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. A breakfast wrap or burrito is an excellent choice to fulfill your body’s nutritional needs. You can also consider scrambled eggs, whole-grain cereal, and low-fat plain yogurt. 

Eat healthy snacks

Snacks provide energy between meals or after physical activities. Healthy snacks, such as raw veggies with peanut butter or low-fat cottage cheese and apple or banana, decrease hunger pangs and keep you from overeating at mealtime. 

Add colors to your plate

Make a healthier choice by adding fruits and vegetables to your plate. If your current diet includes zero fruits or greens, start with just one fruit a day. Include a vegetable to the dinner menu, strawberries to yogurt or cereal, or plan a day without meat once a week.

Drink more water

Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Avoid quenching thirst with drinks with added sugars. Stay hydrated, especially if you are active or live in hot climates.

Following a restrictive diet for thirty days isn’t a way to create a healthy lifestyle. However, small but consistent changes to a diet over time have a beneficial effect on health, especially heart health. Apart from making informed food choices and developing physical activity habits, keep the health of your heart in check with cardiac telemetry. 

5 New Year Resolutions To Keep Your Heart Healthy

 

New Year begins with new resolutions. From being productive to beating procrastination to eating healthy and exercising, people make all sorts of commitments to make their new year better and more satisfying than the previous year. However, seldom do they realize that making heart-healthy resolutions is also vital to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.

Studies suggest that people with health problems experience a host of emotional and physical symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, sleep troubles, and others, all of which can significantly affect the quality of life. It turns out that keeping cardiovascular health in good shape and preventing heart problems is as crucial as focusing on physical health and other aspects of life this new year.

Here are a few New Year resolutions you should make to keep your heart healthy:

Regularly check heart health: first thing first. Keep your heart health in check taking a Resting ECG test.If there are issues in the test, you may be referred to do a Stress test or wear a 24- hour Holter monitor.

Quit Smoking: smokers are twice as likely to develop heart problems and experience a heart attack than those who don’t smoke. Smoking damages the lining of your arteries and raises blood pressure, both of which are enough to trigger heart disease.

Consume less sugar: too much sugar in your diet can cause weight gain, which can raise blood pressure and result in heart disease and diabetes. Control your sugar intake.

Eat more green veggies and fruits: Vegetables and fruits are a powerful source of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and other essential nutrients that keep the heart in tip-top shape. Make sure you don’t overlook their importance.

Cut back on alcohol: alcohol use not only damages your liver but also causes high blood pressure, arrhythmia, and other heart problems. If you are dependent on alcohol or any other drug, it’s time to seek help.

Besides making these resolutions, consume a diet low in salt and saturated fats and high in essential nutrients to boost your heart health. Don’t forget to exercise three to five times a week to strengthen your heart muscles. Once you make these resolutions and stay true to them, you will notice a significant improvement in your heart on your Resting, Stress Test or Holter Monitoring test.

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

Did you know September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month? According to CDC, 19% children in the USA suffer from obesity which is worrisome. Childhood obesity has negative repercussions on the overall well-being and development of children. The condition is particularly troubling as those extra pounds often lead to the onset of serious health issues like Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and depression. Make lifestyle changes in your family to encourage your child to do the same. Eating right and exercising regularly go a long way in reducing childhood obesity. Ensure that your child gets stress EKG or the exercise stress test done, from time-to-time, to keep track of his or her heart health.

When to worry?

Not every child who is plumper than most kids of his or her age is obese. Some children may have body frames that are larger than average. It is also important to know that at different stages of development, children carry different percentages of body fat. So, just by looking at your child, you can’t reallydecipher if you need to be concerned in the first place.

Calculate his or her BMI or body mass index to get a clearer picture. BMI is the measurement of weight in comparison to height and is used to determine if a person is overweight.Your child’s doctor will probably use growth charts and other tests like the stress EKG to figure out if his/her weight falls under an unhealthy range.

Major causes for childhood obesity

With a sedentary lifestyle most families are used to, children get little physical activities. Their calorie intake often succeeds the desired level. They prefer a McDonalds burger over a bowl of veggies, video games over an hour of playing in the backyard. All this sums up in an obese child.Sometimes, hormonal or genetic factors may also be responsible for excessive weight gain among children.

Final words

Since risk factors are immense, it is of utmost importance that parents pay diligent attention to the weight of their children. Treating childhood obesity will ensure your child remains healthy now as well as the future.

Choosing your child’s doctor is also a crucial task. Always prefer a clinic that has efficient stress EKG machine,like the Nasiff CardioStress, among other things.

 

 

Mental Health Awareness Month: Mental Health Disorders and Heart Diseases

Most people believe heart conditions are solely linked with physical activities, but this is not completely true. Though a lack of exercise and poor diet increases the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems, our thoughts, emotions, and attitudes also accelerate the onset of heart conditions. 

Research shows the chemical and biological factors that contribute to mental health issues also influence heart disease. Mental health disorders, either short- or long-term, trigger a person’s behavior, mood, or thinking ability, which could lead to anxiety, depression, and stress on the body, including the heart. 

The connection between mental health disorders and heart disease

People experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) over a long period may also experience physiologic effects on the body - including the reduced flow of blood to the heart, increased levels of cortisol, and cardiac reactivity, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate. These physiologic effects may further cause metabolic and heart disease. 

Research also shows certain mental health disorders - such as anxiety, PTSD, and depression - may develop after a cardiac event, such as heart attack and stroke. An acute heart disease event may trigger a fear of death or disability or cause financial problems, which further contributes to these mental health disorders. 

Certain mental health disorders, such as stress and anxiety, may increase the chances of adopting unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking, and failing to take prescribed medications. People use these unhealthy coping strategies to deal with stressful situations, which increase the risk of developing heart disease. 

What should you do?

Get in touch with your healthcare provider to discuss how you are feeling, both physically and mentally. Someone who is clinically depressed needs follow-up care, therefore, adopt healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle. Besides, monitor yourself using a Holter monitor system, especially if you are dealing with heart disease or stroke.