The heart is an extraordinary machine. There’s really no other hardware on the planet that relentlessly pumps 100,000 times a day for decades with barely a hiccup for the majority of us, yet we tend not to think much about the hard yakka it silently does until something goes wrong.
“Heart disease is not a middle-aged man’s disease – that’s a long-held misconception that we really need to correct,” says Professor Jason Kovacic, executive director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and a practising cardiologist. “Way more women die of heart disease than breast cancer and cervical cancer combined, but the message hasn’t hit home that getting your blood pressure checked is just as important as having a mammogram or pap smear.”
It’s actually more important than ever before. The major risk factors – elevated cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar – have all markedly increased since the pandemic, according to data
