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Patients with a low CHA₂DS₂-VASc score are often considered low risk for stroke. However, around cardioversion, this changes. Atrial paresis following restoration of sinus rhythm creates a temporary high-risk period for clot formation, particularly after AF lasting more than 24 hours, making short-term anticoagulation essential even in younger patients.
A single episode of atrial fibrillation in patients with a CHA₂DS₂-VASc score ≥2 often leads to a recommendation for lifelong anticoagulation. But is this always necessary? This article explores when exceptions may be reasonable, the importance of rhythm monitoring, and how shared decision-making can guide personalised, safe stroke prevention strategies.
When a patient arrives breathless and unable to climb a hill, the instinct is to blame the heart. Sometimes the answer lies in the blood itself. Iron deficiency anaemia reduces oxygen delivery, forces the heart into a hyperdynamic state, and can even produce a murmur over a completely normal valve.
In cardiometabolic medicine, muscle is not a cosmetic tissue but a metabolic organ. Evidence consistently shows that strength, not muscle mass, predicts insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk, and survival. Many older adults are not losing muscle tissue — they are losing muscle function, and that is the pathology that matters.
What if the heart works like a hybrid engine? Continuously switching between fatty acids, glucose, and ketones, it optimises fuel use for efficiency and demand. But in metabolic disease, this flexibility is lost. The result: poorer fuel, narrowed supply lines, and a strained engine — a new way to understand cardiovascular risk.
Modern lipid management requires both substantial percentage LDL reduction and achieving low absolute LDL levels. Relative reduction reflects treatment intensity, while absolute LDL determines residual risk. Trials consistently show “lower is better.” Even with good percentage drops, patients may remain undertreated—making combined pharmacological and lifestyle strategies essential to reduce atherogenic exposure and cardiovascular risk.
LDL-C alone may miss important cardiovascular risk. This article explains why ApoB and small dense LDL often better reflect atherosclerotic burden, especially in metabolic disease and high visceral fat. It outlines practical lipid targets by risk category and shows how LDL-C:ApoB ratios can estimate dangerous particle patterns
Continuous glucose monitors reveal how differently individuals respond to carbohydrates. We classify these responses using Glucotype, which reflects innate carbohydrate tolerance, and Current Glucose Profile (CGP), which shows a person’s present metabolic state. Combined with visceral fat grading, this system helps identify metabolic risk and guide personalised dietary or medical interventions.
Whether you are diabetic or simply health-conscious, understanding how to interpret CGM data can significantly enhance your approach to diet and lifestyle management. By recognising your body's unique responses to different foods and activities, you can make informed decisions that promote better metabolic health and overall well-being.
Prediabetes should be viewed as an active cardiometabolic disease stage rather than a passive risk marker. Cardiovascular injury begins before overt diabetes, creating a critical window for intervention. Lifestyle therapy remains fundamental, while agents such as metformin, GLP-1 receptor agonists, dual incretin therapies, and SGLT2 inhibitors may help modify long-term cardiovascular risk.
Measuring your waist isn’t about shape or clothing size. It’s a simple health check that reflects harmful visceral fat around the organs. Measuring the narrowest point can miss risk. For meaningful results, waist must be measured at a fixed anatomical point and tracked consistently over time.
N-of-1 medicine shifts the focus from population averages to personal biology. This blog series explores how individuals can run simple, safe self-experiments — using themselves as the control — to test plausible health hypotheses, track meaningful outcomes, and discover what genuinely improves their own health and wellbeing over time.