Vascular Health - How old are your arteries?

Assessing arterial stiffness provides an important measure of the state of health of the cardiovascular system. Advancing age, as well as various diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure (hyper tension) and renal failure, all play their part in increasing the stiffness of the arteries - especially the large arteries and the aorta (the largest artery in the body which sends oxygenated blood throughout the body).

As the arteries stiffen and become less elastic, the amount of resistance the heart must overcome to eject blood into the arteries increases. Inevitably, this places an ever increasing load on the heart which is not good news. Stiffening of the arteries is the major cause of high blood pressure in older people, which in turn is a leading risk factor for stroke, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart failure. Arterial stiffness is also thought to be implicated in making the arteries more prone to the cellular processes that occur in the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis refers to the thickening of the walls of the coronary arteries due to an accumulation of plaque in the blood vessels. This, too, can eventually lead to heart attack and stroke.

Arterial stiffness can also adversely affect the blood supply to the heart muscle itself (myocardial perfusion), and can be used as a measure of target organ damage in those with untreated high blood pressure (hypertension). It is also significantly associated with the presence of coronary artery calcium.

It is clear then that measuring arterial stiffness has significant clinical value and, by using Bio Clip, this invaluable health indicator can be easily and accurately recorded.

The Bio Clip system comprises of:

• Bio Clip - a finger clip that is very similar to finger clip pulse oximeters (the clips that are used on patients to measure saturation percentage of oxygen in blood) and is, therefore, painless and non-invasive to use
• Software that will reside on your computer and present the results from your Bio Clip tests

 

By measuring a person’s arterial stiffness, the Bio Clip system calculates their bio-vascular age. Bio-vascular age is the term given to describe the comparative age of a person’s arteries - that is to say are a person’s arteries older or younger than their actual age?

Bio Clip does this by measuring the speed of a person’s pulse waves which are detected via an infrared light that passes through the Bio Clip when it is attached to a finger. Every time the heart beats and the aortic valve opens, the aorta receives a rushing pulse of blood from the heart. It also receives pressure that spreads from the walls of the heart to the walls of the aorta. These pressure (or pulse) waves travel from the heart down the arterial walls in advance of blood flow. When the wave hits major branching points, such as at the renal and femoral arteries, it is reflected back so that it reverses direction and travels back to its point of origin, becoming what is known as ‘wave reflection’.

It is the speed of these pulse waves that is crucial when determining arterial stiffness. This is because the speed of the pulse wave is determined by the elasticity of the arteries – pulse waves become quicker as arteries become stiffer and more rigid and so bio-vascular age increases. Conversely, the more flexible and elastic the artery, the slower the pulse wave and this in turn lowers bio-vascular age. These dynamic changes in the way blood flows through the vascular system are easily and safely measured via the Bio Clip.

Once the information about the individual’s pulse waves has been collected, the Bio Clip system automatically calculates an arterial stiffness index number and compares it to a database of other vascular profiles in order to provide the person’s bio-vascular age. The whole test just takes a matter of minutes to run and provides the user with that most unique of insights – how old their arteries really are!

Make an appointment and have this test done and find out how old YOUR arteries are. You will receive a 4 page report detailing the results of your test.

Having Bio-Clip testing done over time helps you monitor the improvements being made to make sure you are only spending money on nutritional supplements that are working for you.