What are the risk factors?

The situation:

Unfortunately, these risk factors rarely occur in isolation. In fact, many patients have at least two risk factors, and the number is growing in the US. (Fig 1)

With respect to cardiovascular disease, the combination of hypertension and hyperlipidemia occurs frequently and is responsible for 58% of the entire cardiovascular health burden. (Figs 2-3)

In the INTERHEART study (Yusuf, 2004) of 30,000 persons, the addition of multiple risk factors dramatically increased the risk for heart attack. For patients who had hypertension, hyperlipidemia and who were also obese and smoked, the risk of heart attack was 68 times higher! (Fig 4)

Another increasingly common problem is the so-called “Metabolic Syndrome”. Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of risk factors including dyslipidemia, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. (Fig 5)

The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is 23.7%. The prevalence increases from 6.7% among persons aged 20 through 29 years to 43.5% and 42.0% for persons aged 60 through 69 years and aged at least 70 years, respectively.

The problem:

As you can imagine, given the poor control rates with individual risk factors, the vast majority of patients with multiple risk factors do not have them well controlled. (Fig 6)

The Santé solution:

At Santé our goal is to manage all of your risk factors to the optimum. Using evidence-based therapies and a multidiscplinary approach coupled with web-based management tools and frequent follow-up we provide something you cannot find in a typical physician practice. Our healthcare system is broken. Incentives for healthy living and for intensive partnership with your physician rarely exist. At Santé, our inclusive model allows us to focus on keeping you healthy, not worrying about time pressures or reimbursement. We believe that is the way patients SHOULD be treated!