The article below is the full article of LOHAS DIGEST 64.

In July, I shared in LOHAS-MSP graduates’ online gathering on preventing the silent killer – Ischemic Heart Disease.   One of the reasons is that I had a friend passed away due to heart attack at the young age of 48. Too young, too soon for a person who is active in sports.

During the sharing session I explained in detail how the various risks factors that could build up to the unfortunate incident – heart attack. 
 
The information below is an additional information which I find useful and handy. For people (or your loved ones) who are already having health conditions such as elevated blood pressure or blood lipid (cholesterol or triglycerides) or diabetes, you might want to put additional attention to it.  

Most of the time, we were told, “If you have high blood pressure, you have higher risk of having heart attack or stroke”. But, by how much? 

These charts try to give you a better and more quantifiable picture on your risk.  
WHO ISH Prediction Chart for Heart Attack and Stroke in 10 years


These charts are provided by WHO (World Health Organisation) in predicting your risk of heart attack or stroke in the next 10-years.  

It took them more than 10 years to compile, track and update the data from different countries to come out with these charts. There are lots of science and math behind it but I shall skip that details.  

Importantly, it is how to use the chart for our health.

Basically, these charts indicate 10-year risk of a fatal or non-fatal major cardiovascular event (heart attack or stroke), according to age, sex, blood pressure, smoking status, total blood cholesterol and presence of diabetes mellitus for different regions in the whole world.

It is a good and quick way to show the combined effects of different risk factors contributing into a person risk level of having a stroke or a heart attack in the next 10 years. 

For example, a combine effect of hypertension and diabetes could result in more complication to a person health than the each risk factor.

It only takes you 5 easy steps to know whether you are in the green, yellow, amber, red or highly red zone.

Guide to use the WHO ISH prediction chart
I’ll be using the chart that is related to Singapore for illustration. Malaysia need to use a different charts. You can find the link to all the charts at the end of this article. 

Let say, we have two persons, Mr. Tan and Madam Lee.

Mr. Tan is 53 years old, a smoker, his systolic blood pressure (SBP) is 145 mmHg, his cholesterol level is 6.2 mmol/L. If you look at the chart for people without diabetes.  Then his 10-years risk is in amber zone, indicated in by the Red Arrow in the chart.

 
Image on how to use the chart to predict Mr. Tan risk level

For Madam Lee who is 51 this year, a non-smoker, but she has type 2 diabetes.  Her cholesterol level is 5.1 and her blood pressure is SBP is 125 mmHg.  

Then, she can check on the chart for people with diabetes.  Her 10-year risk is in yellow zone, as indicated by pink arrow.  

Image - Madam Lee risk level based on WHO prediction chart for people with type 2 diabetes
What if Madam Lee is a smoker? Then her risk will be in amber zone, as indicated by the black arrow. So, smoke kills!

Now, back to Mr. Tan, if he has decided to take charge of his health and destiny.  He wants to see his son getting married and he wants to be able to play with his future grandchildren.  What can he start to do now?  

He can try to lower his blood pressure to below 120 mmHg (blue arrow) and quick smoking, then his risk will be further reduced as circled in the Blue heart shape – a much safer place, far away from the amber zone.


Zoom in on Mr. Lee chart to reduce his risk of heart attack and stroke
If he wants to take it a step further, he can reduce his total cholesterol level to below 6.  Then he is in Green zone which is the cell to the left of the blue heart shape. 

If fact, if you are a chart person, you can tell a lot based on these charts.  It’s like a map to show you the direction to be out of the danger zone.

For people who are in green zone, good for you!
Keep it up and stay healthy!

One thing to note, these charts only tracks the main few risk factors (age, gender, smoker, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol).   There are other risks factor not shown in the chart.  We shall discuss it in our follow up post or in the next LOHAS DIGEST.

Another thing to note, these charts are a good guide, however, please work with closely with your doctor or health practitioner, especially if you are in amber or red zone.

For people who did not have their cholesterol level tested.  They can use their BMI in replacing the cholesterol to track their risk – the third chart. But I would say the chart is less telling because a person who is at healthy weight might have elevated cholesterol level.

I hope these two simple illustrations – Mr. Lee and Madam Lee situation, not only show you on how to identify your risk in next 10 years, but it also gives you an indication and motivation to shift your risk to a safer zone.

If you think this information is useful or you would like a copy of the three charts, here are the links to download the charts for different region.

WHO prediction chart for High Income Asia Pacific Region (Singapore, Brunei, South Korea and Japan)
WHO prediction chart for South East Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and etc)

WHO prediction chart for North America (USA, Canada, Greenland)

WHO prediction chart for Western Europe (UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, France and etc)

A gentle reminder to LOHS-MSP graduates, if you are in yellow or amber zone, you might want to revise your notes on knowing your body-type and eat according to your body type, there a few recipes that help reduces cholesterol level.   Don’t forget the lifestyle that helps your meridian too.  Stay Healthy, Stay Awesome! 💪



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