What’s your company’s biggest health risk?
Cardiovascular disease is the biggest risk, killing 1 of 3 Americans. Heart attacks cause the most deaths. Strokes cause the most disability. But cardiovascular disease is often silent, causing no symptoms until a sudden event, which can be fatal.
heart attacks and strokes put your company at risk:
When the new CEO of United Airlines had a heart attack, stock prices dropped.
Key employees with high risks for cardiovascular events can increase the risk your company carries. Those with the highest risk are those who’ve survived a heart attack, a stroke, or a TIA. Of heart attack survivors 45 and older, about 1 in 5 men (18%) and 1 in 4 women (23%) will die within 1 year (1). Within 5 years after surviving a heart attack at 45 or older, about 1 of 2 women (47%) and 1 of 3 men (36%) will die (1).
We can help you mitigate that risk. How? By helping your people identify, understand and dramatically reduce their own risk. Check out our stats for heart attack survivors.
What about executive physical programs?
Popular with corporate executives, "Executive Physical" programs can provide a false sense of security, because physical exams do not decrease the risk of CV events, death from cancer or overall mortality (2).
Most executive programs include an exercise stress test. Why? Because when you ask the question, “Do I have heart disease?” most doctors answer by ordering a stress test.
If you pass your stress test, you’ll be told that you don’t have heart disease.
Yet most heart attack victims would have passed their stress test the day before the heart attack. Why? Because most heart attacks (86% in one study, 90% in another) occur in “vulnerable” plaque (see illustration below), not in “obstructive” plaque. (3,4)
If you’re having symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath, you may need a stress test or a stent. But…
Because stents don’t prevent heart attacks in patients with no chest pain (5,6), stress tests can never predict risk in someone without symptoms. (7,8,9) Remember stress tests are designed to find the most severe obstructive blockage in a patient having chest pain who needs a stent.
Stress tests can never predict the risk for a CV event. (7,8,9)
How much risk do your key people carry?
Start by engaging them with the question, “How many red flags do you have for heart disease or stroke?” Send them the link to our web page: www.CardioSound.com/risk-factors. One example of a red flag is Frank’s diagonal ear lobe crease.
Some executive programs plug risk factors into a formula, using gender, blood pressure and cholesterol, age and smoking history to calculate the risk of having an event. Although risk calculators can describe risk in a large population, are easy to use and popular with doctors and patients, based on just a few risk factors they can never predict risk for an individual (10). They often miss high-risk patients. Giving a false sense of security to high risk patients is dangerous.
Our screening program combines the best available blood bio-marker technology with the best available anatomical testing to assess the actual arteries themselves. At CardioSound, we present the information in an understandable format that not only leaves the patient well-informed but also well-motivated toward effective personal change.
Why so unpredictable?
People who have chest pain when they exercise need a stress test to diagnose "Obstructive" blockage, which blocks the flow of blood (see below, far right) and needs a surgical procedure like by-pass or stent. But that's not where most heart attacks strike.
Most heart attacks shut off the blood flow suddenly and without warning. When "vulnerable" or soft plaque ruptures, a clot or "thrombus" forms, and often blocks off the entire artery within moments (see "Rupture, Thrombus, Myocardial Infarction" above). You would think that most heart attacks occur where plaque causes severe obstruction. Not true. Only 14% do. 86% of heart attacks occur in "vulnerable" plaque where the blood flow was fine just moments before the heart attack (3,4). Vulnerable plaque causes no symptoms. No warning signs. Just a sudden event. Sometimes lethal. That's why this disease is so unpredictable. Almost everyone knows someone who has dropped dead from this disease.
Remember this: 86% of heart attack victims would have passed a stress test the day before the event. Passing a stress test makes people feel better about their health. It means they don’t need a stent. It does not mean they have low risk for having a heart attack.
the best key person insurance:
Does your firm have a corporate-owned "key person" life insurance policy in place for high-value employees?
The best corporate policy is one that has the power to identify risk and then also empower your people to do something about it.
We do that. Start with our risk assessment program to define how much risk your key people are carrying. For those who have high risk, we then ask the question: “What are the sources of your risk?” Once we know the sources (there are over 20 modify-able risk factors), we then guide high-risk patients through a proven process to reverse plaque disease and reduce risk, to cool off the arteries as quickly as possible.
Some people don’t believe it’s possible to reverse artery disease. We see patients reversing their artery disease every day. See our Artery Testimonials page for proof: Artery disease can be reversed!
For those committed to their current doctor's treatment program, we offer our "Ask the Arteries" trending program, designed to show whether prevention is working or not working. Initially and then after 6 months, the primary care doctor or cardiologist will receive a report card, with an opportunity to address the issues. Again at 12 months, a third report clarifies treatment successes and failures.
When prevention programs fail, people need procedures like stents or bypass. Or they have events. Don’t let your key people find out their prevention program isn’t working by having an event.
The safest way to find out whether a doctor’s program works is by testing the arteries, and doing it in time to change the course of their disease. That's the power of personalized trending technology: the linking of unseen cause-effect relationships, bringing clarity to therapeutic decision points. Ultrasound-guided cardio-prevention: CardioSound. A prevention program that actually works.
We recommend starting with those who have the highest risk: heart attack and stroke survivors. Let us know if we can help you.
references:
Benjamin, EJ, et al, Heart Attack and Stroke Statistics-2017 update. Circulation 2017 Mar 7; 135(10): e146-e603
This meta-analysis of 14 randomized trials involving 183,000 adults who had screening health physicals showed no effect on overall mortality, cardiovascular-related mortality, or cancer-related mortality. Several trials showed that screening physicals did result in more diagnoses and in better self-reported health. General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2012;345;e7191
E Falk, PK Shah, V Fuster. Circulation. 1995;92:657.
Little WC, et al. Can coronary angiography predict the site of a subsequent myocardial infarction in patients with mild-to-moderate coronary artery disease? Circulation. 1988;78:1157-1166
Both the COURAGE trial in 2007, and the ISCHEMIA trial in 2019, showed that stents don’t save lives or prevent heart attacks in patients with no chest pain, unless there is left main disease, which is rare.
Boden, William, et al. the COURAGE Trial Research Group, Optimal Medical Therapy with or without PCI for Stable Coronary Disease, N Engl J Med 2007; 356:1503-1516 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa070829
David J. Maron, et al. for the ISCHEMIA Research Group, Initial Invasive or Conservative Strategy for Stable Coronary Disease. N Engl J Med 2020; 382:1395-1407 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1915922
Chou, Cardiac screening with electrocardiography, stress echocardiography or myocardial perfusion imaging: Advice for high-value care from the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2015;162:438-447
E. Falk, PK Shah, V Fuster, Coronary Plaque Disruption. Circulation 1995;92:657
Based on population studies, Framingham-based risk calculators tend to miss too many high-risk people. A medical way of saying this is that risk calculators are specific for CV disease but are not very sensitive in predicting risk for an individual. Doneen AL, Bale BF, ISA June 15, 2009