BBC Radio Wales MW

A Healthy Future

Documentaries

Alice Roberts examines how scientists in Wales are at the centre of health research.

A Healthy Future: Heart disease research in Wales

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

10/07/2018

Heart disease research in Wales

BBC Radio Wales - A Healthy Future, Heart disease research in Wales

Alice Roberts looks at how scientists in Wales are at the centre of health care research.

Alice Roberts examines how scientists in Wales are at the centre of health research, looking at work to improve the lives of people with heart disease and related conditions.

As the NHS celebrates 70 years of service, academic and broadcaster Alice Roberts looks to the future and finds out how research being carried out in Wales may help to improve our health. 

In this final programme in the series, she looks at the big issue of heart disease. Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in Wales, causing more than a quarter (27%) of all deaths, or over 9,000 deaths each year - an average of 25 each day. There are an estimated 375,000 people living with cardiovascular disease in Wales - 4% of the population. But experts say things are improving with a 68% reduction in the rate of people dying from premature coronary heart disease over the past 20 years.

Here Alice meets the team at the Wales Heart Research Institute where they are carrying out wide ranging research including studies into why people with chronic kidney problems are more at risk of heart disease, what happens when blood clotting goes wrong and how the discovery of new lipids may help understand heart and circulatory problems in the future. 

Alice meets a heart patient who has recently been fitted with a pacemaker and hears from heart and blood circulation specialists about the challenges they are facing.

A Healthy Future with Alice Roberts is an MIM Production for BBC Radio Wales.

BBC Radio Wales

Comprehensive News and Sport, the latest information and the best entertainment for Wales.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

A Healthy Future

Heart disease research in Wales

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio Wales MW

About BBC Radio Wales