Cardiovascular disease causes one third of the deaths in Canada – more than any other illness.
Although February was Heart Month and to celebrate, we were checking in on your heart health we think this is important enough to continue this service twelve months of the year.
We offer the Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Assessment.
The Framingham Risk Assessment will tell us whether or not you have a low (<10%), medium (10-20%), or high (>30%) 10 year risk of having a major cardiovascular disease event (I.e. Heart attack). It will also determine if you need to make lifestyle changes or be placed on drug therapy to reduce your risk.
What information is used to assess your Cardiovascular Risk?
During this assessment, one of our pharmacists will check your blood pressure and assess your cholesterol levels (this may require sending you for a blood test if you have not had one recently). Using this information, along with your age, gender, smoking status and diabetes status, your 10 year cardiovascular risk will be calculated.
What happens if you are found to be at risk?
If you are found to be in the medium to high risk categories or have high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol, your pharmacist will help you to make any necessary lifestyle changes. They will also notify your family physician of the findings and make any necessary drug therapy recommendations.
Who should participate in our Heart Health Clinic?
We recommend participating in our screening clinic if you any ONE of the following:
- You are male and over 40 years of age.
- You are female and over 50 or post-menopausal.
- You have heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or had a stroke.
- Your waist measures more than 102 centimeters (40 inches) for men or 88 centimeters (35 inches) for women. For persons of Chinese or South Asian descent, if your waist measures more than 90 centimeters (35 inches) for men or 80 centimeters (32 inches) for women.
- You have a family history of heart disease or stroke.
If you would like to have your cardiovascular risk assessed, stop by the pharmacy on Tuesday’s or Thursdays between 10 AM and 4 PM and ask us to check on the health of your heart. We don’t want to discourage anyone from pursuing an answer to this question so we will make every effort to work through the assessment but depending on your personal health history the pharmacist may recommend that you set up a designated time with the Pharmacist to make certain adequate time is given to your assessment. We’re certain you can appreciate how important this assessment can be to your future health strategies.
Don’t wait until you become another statistic!
