NEWLY appointed chair of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, consultant cardiologist Dr Andrene Chung, says there is an epidemic of coronary artery disease in Jamaica.

She explained that heart disease is the number one killer in the world including the Latin American and Caribbean region, and highlighted that there is a widespread occurrence of coronary artery disease in Jamaica.

Coronary artery disease evolves when the major blood vessels that supply the heart with blood and oxygen are damaged.

Dr Chung told the Jamaica Observer that coronary artery disease would commonly be known as blockages in the blood vessels of the heart. A complete blockage can cause a heart attack.

“So that sort of disease that leads on to heart attacks,” she continued. “We are having an epidemic of that.”

Dr Chung, who has been practising cardiology for 19 years, shared that when she started medical school, seeing someone on the ward of the hospital with a heart attack was rare.

“When I was a medical student we would see lots and lots of rheumatic heart disease, and when someone with a heart attack came on ward, literally, we would all rush over to look at that patient,” she recounted. “We would call all our friends, ‘come there is a heart attack’.

“Now, the wards are covered with them, so we are having an epidemic of coronary artery, disease, and this is the one thats fuelled by the diabetes, the hypertension, the high cholesterol, and the smoking,” she continued.

Physical inactivity is also a risk factor for coronary artery disease.

On the issue of whether the condition affects one sex more than the other, Dr Chung says it affects both men and women.

“In the earlier years, it affects males more. So, everyone used to think that males are the ones affected by it and women aren’t affected,” she told Your Health Your Wealth. “After menopause, women have a higher risk and have a higher incidence than men do.

“It affects both genders equally. It is just that men may start [to] show it earlier, like maybe at age 50 or before 50, whereas women tend to show it later,” Dr Chung said.

She insists, though, that if people pay keen attention to the risk factors for heart disease, it will have a beneficial effect on coronary artery disease.

So, what do people need to do to prevent coronary artery disease?

Dr Chung said: “Cutting down on the risk factors: finding out if you have hypertension and controlling it and treating it; treating your diabetes; never smoking cigarettes.

“Each cigarette that you smoke causes the coronary arteries to go into spasm and, over time, as you continue to smoke cigarettes, it causes damage to the inside of the blood vessels — so never smoke a cigarette.

“Check your cholesterol and keep it under good control and exercise regularly,” she said.

— Anika Richards