"Cardiovascular diseases originate in the brain; therefore, using the brain to switch to healthy lifestyle habits is the best way for prevention," said Dr Valentí Fuster, one of the most prestigious cardiologists and a strong promoter of cardiovascular health
The conference 21st century Cardiology. Images of the heart and the brain, given by Dr Fuster, has filled this Friday the auditorium of the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB). This has been one of the events, organised to commemorate the hospital’s 50th anniversary.
Dr Fuster is the Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and General Director of the National Center for Cardiovascular investigation or CNIC (equivalent to NHLBI) in Madrid. The Dr remarked, “there is direct relationship between seven risk factors that affect the arteries - obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, inadequate diet with excess salt, sugar and fat, sedentary lifestyle and smoking - and cerebral microcirculation, which nowadays we can see thanks to imaging technologies and artificial intelligence".
That is why "these seven risk factors, which affect the large arteries, also affect the tiny brain arteries, contributing to senile degenerative disease," the cardiologist warned. "We have forgotten to maintain good health before the age of 40, and the impact during the first decades of life is crucial," he said.
Dr Valentí Fuster insisted that, if we want to have an impact on health, it is necessary to have an impact on children: "especially aged 3 to 6, when they still have very few brain centres". "The concepts that they register in their brains at this age stay with them throughout their lives, having a decisive impact when they are adults". Dr Fuster stressed that from early childhood, they should know how their body and heart work, how important healthy habits and physical activity are, as well as how to manage their emotions.
Half a century of milestones in cardiology at the Bellvitge University Hospital
Dr Fuster's scientific conference is part of the program of events celebrating the first half-century of the Bellvitge University Hospital, which opened on 8 November 1972.
Precisely the heart is one of the HUB’s areas of excellence.
In 1985, the Heart Transplant Programme was launched, but it had already been in operation even before that. In 1994, the Ventricular Circulatory Assistance Programme was launched. In June 2021, a new milestone was reached in this field: the first heart transplant in asystole (heart-stopped) in Catalonia.