For our Aging Gracefully series, WTOP speaks with different specialists at MedStar Washington Hospital Center about the best ways to maintain your health as you age.
WASHINGTON — That weekly fast food treat and the occasional social cigarette could be doing more damage to your health than you think — especially when it comes to your veins and arteries.
“The older we get, the more likely we are to manifest the signs and symptoms of vascular disease — especially if we’ve lived our life in a way that probably has some vices,” says Dr. Steven David Abramowitz, a physician in the Department of Vascular Surgery at the MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
There are many different forms of vascular disease, or disease of the body’s blood vessels, but Abramowitz says the two most common forms in the aging population are occlusive disease, which stops blood from flowing in the arteries, and degeneration, which causes the arteries to abnormally dilate, predisposing them for rupture.
Occlusive disease often presents itself in the form of claudication, or muscle pain or cramping in the calves or thighs brought on by routine physical activity.
“That’s typically the body crying out for more blood and more oxygen,” Abramowitz says. “But the problem is the artery is diseased and clogged up, so it’s not able to deliver that extra blood or extra oxygen to the tissue.”
Often times, it’s the accumulation of cholesterol, fat and calcium that causes the artery to clog in the first place.
Claudication is not something that should be taken lightly. Abramowitz says it’s a serious condition because it’s likely that not just one, but all of the arteries in their body are diseased, including the heart.
“So somebody who develops claudication is much more likely to have a heart attack in the next 10 years than somebody who doesn’t,” he says.
Abramowitz explains that both occlusive disease and arterial degeneration are common in older populations because they are cumulative diseases.
“So for people who have aneurysms, or the degeneration of an artery, the longer they live, the more likely that pressurized system is able to expand and it puts them at greater risk for rupture,” he says.
Similarly, the more years spent giving into bad habits or indulging in the occasional guilty pleasure, the more likely one is to cause buildup in the arteries.
“It’s a series of repeated insults,” Abramowitz says. “The longer we are alive, the more fat we eat, the more McDonald’s we consume, maybe the longer we’ve smoked — it’s a cumulative process.”
There are two different ways treat age-related vascular disease, Abramowitz says. The first is with a minimally invasive procedure that involves a single puncture into a vessel, through which the doctor treats the disease using a series of wires and catheters. The second is a surgical bypass, where the surgeon either reroutes the patient’s blood or cleans out the artery.
One way to prevent or lower your risk for age-related vascular disease is to get plenty of exercise. Abramowitz explains that exercise encourages the body to build new blood vessels on its own. “It doesn’t always work, but it definitely helps,” he says.
However the most important thing, he says, is to establish healthy habits early on. This includes maintaining a well-balanced diet, exercising often and abstaining from smoking.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, I’ll just have the casual cigarette here and there,’ or, ‘I’m going to have my cheat days’ … But even the casual cigarette has been linked to arthroscopic disease,” he says.
In fact, those who consume 100 cigarettes in their life are much more likely to experience degenerative arterial diseases than those who don’t smoke at all.
“And 100 cigarettes isn’t that much for the casual smoker who has one or two a year, but if you do it for 30, 40 years, it adds up pretty quickly,” Abramowitz says.
It’s also important to have an open dialogue with your primary care physician about your vascular health as you age. Schedule routine exams and make sure to bring up any questions or concerns you may have.
“Vascular disease is something you really want to keep an eye out for because it’s a marker for a very insidious process, and it’s associated with a lot of different things — from cardiovascular well-being to cerebrovascular well-being and strokes. Vascular disease is something you don’t want to ignore.”
