If I’m Overweight at What Age Should I Start Being Concerned About Heart Disease?

On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Stephanie Coulter sits down with Dr. Briana Costello to discuss when patients should start to be concerned about heart disease if they are overweight.    

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Episode Transcript

(05:09:15):
If I'm overweight,at what age should I start to be concerned
about heart disease?
So 50? Yeah.
So if you're a female, it'sright around 50.
If you're a male,you know, a little bit younger.
So and it depends on what group you're in.
If you are in a high risk family,if you have a strong family
history of heart disease,you should consider

(05:09:37):
what can I do in my lifestyleas I'm living to mitigate the risk
for heart disease, I recommend thatyou really start screening.
Well, this is a beautiful thingabout being a female is that most of us
have children at some point in our lives,and we get screened
for cardiovascular disease.
You don't know that the OBis screening you

(05:09:58):
for diabetes, for hypertension,and actually pregnancy
is a risk and stress test for,the female, body.
And so I actually had highblood pressure in pregnancy.
I had early pre-eclampsia and so I knewmy whole life that I was at increased
risk for high blood pressure.

(05:10:19):
And I monitored my blood pressureand it stayed pretty good.
I ran, I kept it downand when I turned 50, bam, bam.
you know,and that's something we don't talk about.
And I'm surenot many people have heard this,
but if you have had pre-eclampsiaor eclampsia, in pregnancy,
then you are at higher risk in the future.
And that is something that I don't.

(05:10:40):
You will get high blood pressure.
Yeah.
And I hate and I hate to say womenwhen they come to the office
and I ask them about their pregnancies,they're looking at me.
Yeah. Like, why do you care? Yeah.
And I'm like, well, let me tell you whyit actually makes a difference.
So, a lot of womenhere, whatever your age might be,
if you had these issues,you know, it's something to keep in mind.
Yeah, it's something to monitor.
So on average age of 50 for womenis when they really need

(05:11:04):
to start really thinking about it.
Unless they smoke or have diabetes.
And if you smoke or have diabetes, yourrisks are accumulating at an earlier age.