Cardiologist: Up to 80% of heart and vascular diseases are preventable

Cardiovascular disease remains one of the most serious health problems in both Latvia and the world, despite significant improvements in treatment options in recent years. Iveta Mintāle, vice president of the Latvian Society of Cardiology, discussed the issue on the TV24 program "Uz līnijas."

She stressed that illness and death rates from cardiovascular disease remain high, but also pointed to an important fact: an estimated 80% of cardiovascular disease cases are preventable. This means a great deal depends on individual behavior, and concern for heart health should not begin only in middle age or after poor test results appear. According to Mintāle, healthy habits and reducing risk factors should ideally start in childhood — the earlier a person takes care of their lifestyle, the greater the chance of delaying or even avoiding disease altogether.

Differences between men and women

Asked about differences in how the disease affects men and women, Mintāle explained that the underlying process of atherosclerosis, which drives many cardiovascular diseases, is essentially similar for both sexes. Differences appear more in which blood vessels are affected — women more often have smaller arteries affected, while men more often have larger vessels affected.

The age at which the disease begins to manifest also differs. Traditionally, cardiovascular disease has tended to appear earlier in men, with a gap of around ten years compared to women. However, Mintāle noted that this gap has become less pronounced in recent times, meaning it can no longer simply be assumed that the disease mainly threatens one sex. Both women and men fall ill, and overall illness rates remain too high.

Mintāle's comments are a reminder that heart health is not solely a matter for doctors and medication — much of the risk builds up over years through everyday lifestyle habits, meaning prevention needs to start well before a person's first visit to a cardiologist.