Health researchers and community experts gathered together in February to engage in an energetic and informative discussion about cardiovascular aging and maintaining a healthy heart.

The event, Putting Your Heart Into It: The Science of Cardiovascular Aging, provided an opportunity for the wider community to join the discussion and learn about the prevention and management of heart disease. The CIHR Café Scientifique was hosted by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton.

The evening’s experts were Dr. Sonia Anand, Vincent Bowman, Genevieve Hladysh, and Dr. George Heckman. Parminder Raina, professor and lead principal investigator of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, moderated the discussion.

Dr. Sonia Anand, professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster University, began by outlining the risk factors associated with heart disease. These include high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, abdominal obesity, lack of physical activity, diet and stress.

“We know the causes of cardiovascular disease, and now the big challenge is how to prevent [it],” Dr. Anand said.

Vincent Bowman, director of research for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, described the impact of heart disease on the Canadian population.

“Between 2000 and 2009, there has been a 33 percent decline in age standardized cardiovascular death rates in Canada,” he said.  “Despite the progress that we have talked about, heart disease and stroke continue to represent two of the three causes of death as well as the leading cause of hospitalization.”

The discussion also highlighted the link between other chronic conditions and cardiovascular disease.

“People focus on heart disease but we need to take a step back and look at what’s going on. We often find that we see people also have dementia  . . . the same things that affect your heart also affect your brain over time,” added George Heckman, associate professor at the University of Waterloo.

Heckman also discussed the importance of the patient’s caregiver and the need for community resources. “There are two patients  – you and your caregiver,” Heckman said. “With proper supports for the caregiver, we can . . .  keep [the patient] out of the hospital [and] also help the caregiver reduce the burden.”

A part of relieving that burden is achieved by community programs like the YMCA’s Live Well. The Live Well Program, a partnership between the YMCA, Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, promotes wellness by providing specially designed community exercise programs for people living with chronic diseases.

Genevieve Hladysh, senior regional manager of health and fitness at the YMCA of Hamilton/ Burlington/Brantford, told the success story of one woman who was able to exercise and build a social network through the Live Well program.

“We started her in one of our programs called In Motion,” Hladysh said.  “Exercise might have been the original reason she came in, but what we helped to work and support her with was the whole social connection . . .  she was feeling really isolated and we were able to, through advocacy and facilitating what she was able to do, empower her to take over her health.”