Understanding your heart health with Randox Health
Understanding your heart health with Randox Health
Today in the UK, on average, 530 people will be admitted to hospital with a heart attack – even though 75% of heart disease is preventable.
Why wait?
At Randox Health, we believe in preventing disease, instead of waiting for it to occur. We do this through our comprehensive health checks, which use innovative Randox technology to provide you with up to 350 test results, covering over 25 different areas within the body. One of those areas is the heart, by using our ‘Heart Health test panel’. This panel offers up to 21 tests, including a cardiovascular risk score, which assesses your risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years.
Our Heart Health panel also measures apolipoproteins, which are proteins which bind cholesterol for transport around the body. Measuring apolipoproteins along with traditional cholesterol markers, such as LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol, gives us a much more detailed understanding of your Heart Health, compared to using traditional cholesterol levels alone. A unique test in our panel can identify damage to heart muscle, which can occur with a heart attack.
It’s in the genes
As well as our comprehensive Heart Health panel, offered within our programmes, Randox Health also offer more specialised cardiac testing.
Taking cardiac risk assessment one step further, our Cardiac Risk Prediction testing can predict your risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) using not only traditional cholesterol and blood pressure measurements, but using advanced genetic testing. Such testing will combine various genetic tests known to be associated with increased risk of CHD, along with measurements such as blood pressure and cholesterol to calculate and provide you with an overall CHD risk score.
If you have high cholesterol, or heart disease runs in your family, you may benefit from our Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) genetic screen. FH is a hereditary condition involving high cholesterol levels and a high risk of having a heart attack or stroke at a younger age. FH occurs in approximately 1 in every 250 people worldwide and it is thought that 90% of individuals with the condition remain undiagnosed! At Randox Health we recognise the importance of detecting this condition as early as possible; therefore, we offer testing which can check simultaneously for several genetic mutations known to be involved in FH. Early diagnosis and treatment of FH significantly improves and lengthens the lives of those affected, as well as saving the lives of their beloved family members.
To find out more, click here or call 0800 2545 130 and one of our team will be able to discuss this in more detail with you.
We are attending Bee Happy Bulgaria 2018 on 1st ā 4th March!
Bees and other pollinators are vital to three-quarters of the world’s food crops but have been in serious decline in recent decades. The destruction of wild habitats, disease and widespread pesticide use are all important factors.
Global honey production is projected to reach 2.4 million tons by 2022 this is driven by a growth in consumers demand for a natural and healthy alternative to artificial sweeteners, a rising awareness over the benefits of using honey as a sweetener over cane sugar and the realisation of the antibacterial and inflammatory properties of manuka honey.
The decline in the numbers of bees and rising demand from consumers for natural honey products has created a market for “illegal honey” being produced to supply the demand. Producers ‘cut’ their honey with additives like high-fructose corn syrup and brand it as natural honey, affecting purity and reducing cost.
‘Honey laundering’ has also become an issue, with countries such as China using non FDA approved chemicals within beekeeping and being non-compliant to regulations causing their honey to be banned from entering the USA. To get around this, Chinese honey is being shipped into countries such as Vietnam where it is then re labelled and moved into the USA with a new country of origin on the label. This has created the need for a reliable and accurate way to test honey globally.
In order to help the industry Randox Food Diagnostics developed the Evidence Investigator analyser. The Investigator uses Biochip Array Technology (BAT), a technology that was developed by Randox, to detect multiple residues (up to 45) from a single sample. Tests for honey include a vast range of antimicrobials such as Quinolones, Streptomycin, Chloramphenicol, Nitrofurans and more. Randox Food Diagnostics are also releasing a pesticides array in early 2018. Also offered are a range of ELISA test kits.
Alongside the evidence Investigator Randox Food Diagnostics developed the RX misano for enzymatic analysis of honey. The RX misano is now available for the analysis of diastase, total sugars (glucose/fructose), HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) & colouration, with sucrose coming in 2018.
Randox Food Diagnostics will be attending Bee Happy Expo in Bulgaria from 1st – 4th March 2018 Stop by booth 25 or catch our presentation on Saturday 3rd March at 14:30 to learn more about our product offering for honey.
For more information visit the Randox Food Diagnostics website at: http://www.randoxfood.com/matrices/honey
Or email: info@randoxfooddiagnostics.com
Take a proactive approach to your kidney health this World Kidney Day
On 8th March 2018, it’s World Kidney Day, a global campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of good kidney health. With a similar agenda to that of Randox, whose vision it is to ensure patients across the globe have access to the latest advancements in health technology, World Kidney Day works to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems.
This year, the World Kidney Day theme is Kidneys and Women’s Health, to highlight that approximately 195 million women worldwide are affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. In 2018 World Kidney Day and International Women’s Day are recognised on the same date, offering the perfect opportunity to reflect on the importance of women’s health and specifically their kidney health.
CKD is currently the 8th leading cause of death in women, with close to 600,000 deaths each year.
According to some studies, CKD is more likely to develop in women compared with men, with an average 14% prevalence in women compared to 12% in men.
However, the number of women successfully put on dialysis for their Chronic Kidney Disease is lower than the number of men – potentially due to slower progression of the disease, inequitable access to transplantation, and a general lower disease awareness.
It is therefore fitting that World Kidney Day has chosen Women’s Health as its theme for this year – due to the clear need for a higher awareness, timely diagnosis and proper follow up of kidney issues amongst women.
With a comprehensive panel of kidney health tests, Randox are working to ensure timely diagnosis of kidney function problems, to ensure that necessary treatment is administered at the earliest possible stage, when it is most likely to be successful.
For example, the Randox test for albumin, low concentrations of which are the earliest marker of kidney damage, can identify individuals with diabetic nephropathy (damage to the kidneys caused by diabetes) around 10 years earlier than standard protein tests. The Randox albumin test can therefore enable preventative measures to be taken to reduce your risk of developing kidney disease.
In addition to albumin, there are a number of other highly specific and sensitive tests for kidney health, which are available as part of a Randox Health Check at our Randox Health Clinics. These include;
- Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate, which is an equation that considers age, gender, blood and protein levels to determine how well the kidneys are functioning.
- Creatinine, which is a waste product produced by muscle tissue, and removed by the kidneys. When kidney function is diminished, creatinine levels increase.
- Other proteins within the body which should be filtered by the kidneys, and are therefore measured to determine kidney function, include;
- Cystatin C
- Beta-2-Microglobulin
- Microalbumin, which is not usually found in urine, but can appear when normal kidney function is impaired.
- Minerals processed by the kidneys and analysed by Randox Health include;
- Magnesium
- Calcium
- Phosphate
- Potassium
- Sodium
Both World Kidney Day and Randox are working towards improving healthcare worldwide. With access to these high-performance kidney health tests, patients with kidney problems can be diagnosed early, before the condition develops into something more serious.
Although end stage kidney failure affects only 0.05% of the general population, it commands between one and two billion pounds a year of the entire annual NHS budget. We know that loss of kidney function is devastating and hope our innovations can identify those at risk of kidney problems before they occur.
One such test for Chronic Kidney Disease risk measures levels of the protective hormone adiponectin, and is available exclusively at Randox.
Adiponectin can accurately assess levels of hidden and dangerous visceral fat within the body, which is the main cause of almost all the disorders associated with metabolic syndrome, including Chronic Kidney Disease. Assessing adiponectin can determine risk of CKD, as well as a range of other illnesses including prediabetes, cardiovascular disease and various cancers.
By using adiponectin to assess risk of kidney problems, we can empower individuals with the tools they need to prevent kidney problems in their future.
With early diagnosis we can improve patient treatment outcomes and reduce the number of people across the world suffering with kidney health problems.
If you are a clinician or lab interested in running renal function assays, download our Reagents Brochure or email reagents@randox.com
If you want to find out the status of your own Kidney Health, book a health check with Randox Health today. Speak to our team by phoning 0800 2545 130.
