Cardiology

Our hearts beat some 2.5 billion times over the average lifetime, pushing millions of gallons of blood to every part of the body. This steady flow carries with it oxygen, fuel, hormones, other compounds, and a host of essential cells. It also whisks away the waste products of metabolism. When the heart stops, essential functions fail, some almost instantly.

Given the heart’s never-ending workload, it’s a wonder it performs so well, for so long, for so many people. But it can also fail, brought down by a poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, infection, unlucky genes, and more.

A key problem is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis involves thickening of the arteries and is common in ageing. It is made worse if accumulation of cholesterol rich plaques form inside our arteries. Plaques, can limit blood flow through arteries that nourish the heart — the coronary arteries — and other arteries throughout the body. When a plaque breaks apart, it can travel in the bloodstream to important organs leading to a heart attack or stroke.

Although many people develop some form of cardiovascular disease (a catch-all term for all of the diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels) as they get older, it isn’t inevitable. A healthy lifestyle, especially when started at a young age, goes a long way to preventing cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle changes and medications can reduce heart-harming trends, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, in the bud before they cause damage. A variety of medications, operations, and devices can help support the heart if damage occurs.

However, as prevention is always better than cure, discuss with your healthcare provider your blood pressure and your cholesterol levels. Elevated cholesterol, especially if you have already suffered a cardiac event or suffer from diabetes is undesirable. Often blood pressure and cholesterol can be elevated together in many people. For these reasons, your doctor may need to prescribe more than one medicine to lower your cholesterol and manage your blood pressure. As a result of Ireland’s cardiovascular strategy, intervention, management and clinical outcomes have greatly improved in cardiovascular conditions over the past decades.

Athena supports a wide cardiovascular portfolio including leading drugs from specific drug classes such as Atacand®, an ACE inhibitor and Eucardic® a beta blocker. Also, we support patients by providing other specific treatments which help address high cholesterol, orthostatic hypotension and angina.