Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is the medical term for heart disease which is responsible for heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and other diseases of the circulation. These serious conditions are common causes of both death and severe disability. In the UK the further north you live, the greater the risk you have of developing these serious problems. Both men and women are affected (although women have less heart disease until after the menopause) and the disease can run in families.

However major risk factor for getting heart disease include smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet. These are risk factors which you can identify and do something about whatever your age. We can help to identify and treat these factors. We are keen to help you to prevent heart attacks and strokes from occurring and recurring. To do this, we test people (screen) for the presence of risk factors, e.g. smoking, high blood pressure and high blood fat levels (cholesterol), which can increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke. Once identified there is a lot that we and you can do to reduce them.  For those who believe themselves to be at risk but have no symptoms our Specialist nurse, Sister French, can advise and help. We operate a programme for reducing risk in those patients who already have established heart disease and we invite these people in for regular review.