2021 guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention by ESC

During the last European Society of Cardiology the new guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention were published. As the the guidelines highlight, as much as 90% of the risk of a coronary artery disease, stroke or peripheral arterial disease can be explained by smoking, poor eating habits, lack of physical activity, abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, psychosocial factors or alcohol.

Regarding these risk factors, several important studies were presented at the meeting:

• The authors of the SSaSS study showed that salt substitution with a low-sodium substitute reduced the risk of stroke by 14% in patients with previous stroke or age ≥ 60 and hypertension. There is also an increasing amount of evidence about the detrimental cardiovascular effect of alcohol consumption.


• Walford showed an association between the amount of alcohol intake and aortic pulse wave velocity in adolescents indicating early vascular aging.


• There is also an increasing amount of evidence regarding the positive cardiovascular effects of the Mediterranean diet and the negative effect of ultra-processed food.