Life-saving heart checks to be offered to shoppers at pharmacies from next month
SHOPPERS are to be offered on-the-spot heart checks at pharmacies to boost detection of killer conditions.
Selected chemists will offer blood pressure and cholesterol tests, and electrocardiograms for irregular heartbeat, from next month.
GPs will be notified of any problems so they can prescribe preventative drugs such as statins and blood pressure tablets.
NHS chiefs believe the tests will save lives and cut hospital admissions.
All chemists will offer them by 2022 if pilots show they work.
The aim is to cut heart attacks and strokes by 150,000 a year by 2029.
Prof Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “Rapid detection of killer conditions through High Street heart checks will be a game changer.”
The British Heart Foundation said the tests were “critical” to saving lives. Oxford University expert Dexter Canoy called them “significant”.
Walks lift patients
HEART patients get double the benefit from exercise, a major study reveals.
Physically active adults with cardiovascular disease cut their risk of dying young by 14 per cent.
But healthy people hitting NHS exercise targets, such as 150 minutes of brisk walking a week, only slashed their chances by seven per cent.
South Korean experts, who studied 500,000 over-40s over six years, presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Paris.
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He told the European Society of Cardiology congress in Paris that, based on a study, raised blood pressure at 40 indicates a high heart attack risk 20 years on.
The checks are part of an NHS bid to increase tests and treatments offered by pharmacies at evenings and weekends.
Tubby kids at risk
OVERWEIGHT children are much more likely to suffer a heart attack in middle age even if they shed the pounds in adulthood.
Those who smoke before 19 and have high blood pressure or cholesterol increase their risk by up to three times.
This applies regardless of whether they get healthy in later life, found Oxford University experts who tracked 40,000 people.
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