Your bowel movement frequency could indicate heart health
Heart attacks can often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. However, in many cases, your body could actually be sending signals through other symptoms which could imply an impending heart attack, or the fact that you could be at risk of a heart attack in the future.
One such indication could be found in the frequency of your daily bowel movements. Researchers have examined the associations between bowel movement frequency and major vascular and non-vascular diseases outside the digestive system. Here’s more about the research and its noteworthy findings.
About the study
The researchers analysed data of 487, 198 participants, aged 30 to 79 years. The data was obtained from the China Kadoorie Biobank in which participants from 10 geographically diverse areas across China were enrolled between 2004 and 2008.
At the beginning of the study, the participants were without cancer, heart disease or stroke. The participants were followed up for an average of 10 years.
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What did the researchers learn?
The researchers found that participants having bowel movements "more than once a day" had higher risks of ischaemic heart disease (also called coronary heart disease) when compared with the reference group who had bowel movements "once a day". Coronary heart disease is often a precursor to having a heart attack.
Along with higher risk of developing heart disease and heart attack, this bowel movement trend was also seen with a range of other chronic complications, such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease.
If higher frequency can be problematic, then so is lower frequency. Researchers found that the lowest bowel movement frequency ("less than three times a week") was also associated with higher risks of ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke and chronic kidney disease.
How the findings help
The researchers concluded: "BMF [bowel movement frequency] was associated with future risks of multiple vascular and non-vascular diseases. The integration of BMF assessment and health counselling into primary care should be considered."
Knowing about this sign can help people to monitor and regulate their bowel movements for a healthy body and heart health. Moreover, the link is not new. It has been observed that patients with cardiovascular disease tend to be constipated.
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Heart failure and constipation
People with heart failure tend to be constipated due to several reasons such as reduced fluid intake, reduced mobility such as lack of walking or actively doing any other physical activities. Medications. loss of appetite, poor fibre intake and reduced blood flow to the digestive tract are also some factors which can lead to constipation.
Immediate symptoms of heart attack
Everyone should be aware of the common heart attack symptoms in order to take immediate medical attention in case they experience it. According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), these include:
-Chest pain
-Shortness of breath
-Pain travelling through the body
-Feeling faint
-Nausea