Cardiac Care Is The New Self Love

February 13, 2020

 

Cardiac Care Is The New Self Love

 

Bubble baths, long walks on the beach, farm-to-table meals…. As it turns out, these self-love activities are also good for the heart. Stress reduction, quality time in nature, proper movement, and eating well are all part of a heart-healthy regime that your heart will thank you for. Self-love is truly cardiac love.

This is especially good news because it’s squarely within our power to live well. It’s when the heart isn’t well, however, that cardiac disease can strike. Cardiovascular disease, broadly defined as “heart conditions that include diseased vessels, structural problems, and blood clots,” claims a life every 37 seconds in the United States. Globally, the figure looks more like 17.9 million deaths per year.

We know that treating our bodies like the temples they are goes a long way in preventing heart disease, but let’s take a closer look at metabolic syndrome specifically, one of the highest risks for heart disease or diabetes if left untreated. It can be too easy to be cavalier about conditions such as high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, or carrying a little more-to-love around the middle, but paired together they become a constellation we call metabolic syndrome. Approximately 23% of the U.S. population is affected.

Personal health aside, mismanagement of health conditions is costly. Diabetes alone puts the economy back $327 billion per year in treatment costs and lost productivity, according to the American Diabetes Association. Even with advice like: eat well, move your body, de-stress, it really helps to have help. And that’s where technologists come in. There exist tools that make the experience of managing metabolic care a little simpler. Tests and vitals once restricted to clinical environments are now at your fingertips, in your smartphone, all the time.

Livongo and Omada Health, for instance, are changing how consumers manage their insulin and diabetes, respectively, through a suite of connected devices. But it’s Apple we should thank for heart health going mainstream. In 2018 they launched their ECG monitor right onto the wrists of 45 million Apple Watch wearers worldwide. This in addition to their wildly popular fitness tracker, another asset to those managing metabolic syndrome.

Across the ecosystem, the startup community is alive with tools and resources for helping people with metabolic syndrome live their best life. Consider these innovations to be your personal Love Doctor because they are. If you love your heart, your heart will love you back.

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Grace Moen

Writer, Digital Health