How to protect your cardiovascular system when alternating between cold and warm?

 Both high temperature and low temperature environments will bring great harm to the cardiovascular system, such as causing blood pressure fluctuations, inducing myocardial infarction, etc. How to protect the cardiovascular system? During the ESC 2022 conference, this issue invited Professor Martin Halle from the Technical University of Munich, Germany to share his views based on relevant research.



International Circulation: As the chairman of the "Latest Science Session on Primary and Secondary Prevention and Environmental Health", please introduce the background and significance of the topic setting of this session?

Professor Martin Halle: It was a wonderful session. It covered three topics - omega 3 fatty acids, aspirin, and also the environment (heat and cold). I was really fascinated by the heat and cold. Currently, even in Barcelona, it is really hot, as well as in China. So it is about the influence of heat and cold, humidity, and also pollution on cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular events.

 

International Circulation: As the environmental factors mentioned above,Could you introduce the research in this area in detail?

Professor Martin Halle: I was mostly fascinated by the environment topic. It suggested cold is worse than heat. Data shows increases in cardiovascular events in those countries that experience cold temperatures. But they are also increased with hot temperatures, just not to the same extent. That was interesting. These are data from different European countries, from Norway to Italy, so this shows that, particularly for the older population, the environment is important when developing cardiovascular risk and disease. This has to be taken into account when looking at larger studies, to not just look at risk factors (cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, smoking) but also at environmental factors.

 

International Circulation: Several guidelines and new studies were presented at this year's conference, what are you most interested in?

Professor Martin Halle: This ESC Congress is so huge - so many new studies coming out and new guidelines. I am very much interested in the guidelines, particularly the Guideline on Cardio-Oncology - the combination of heart disease and cancer patients. We do know that cancer patients have an increasingly better prognosis and they die of heart disease, so it is important to look at the new medications, chemotherapy and biologicals, and how they interact with the development of heart failure and disease in cancer patients on therapy. These are aspects I am very much interested in, and I am looking forward to the launch of those guidelines.

 

International Circulation: As a participating expert, what do you think is the biggest highlight at this years’s conference?

Professor Martin Halle: The biggest highlight is that we come together here again for the Congress with 27000 people attending the Congress last night. There are many many more online. It is back to the numbers we had pre-COVID-19. I am also very much interested in all the studies linking COVID to disease and specifically heart problems, vascular problems, heart failure and myocarditis and so on. So we have come back here after the COVID pandemic and finding out about new studies that have been performed during this time, and now being presented here onsite at the ESC Congress.

 

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