By Karin Kloosterman

(Whoopi Goldberg undergoes the EndoPAT test. Able to predict heart health 7 years into the future, it will soon be available in Canada).

Canadians know about eating food to promote a healthy heart. For decades we’ve been seeing commercials on TV, teaching us how to eat our veggies, stay fit, and how to check our cholesterol levels. Despite all the preventative steps we take, who hasn’t had a friend, who for no apparent reason dropped dead on his desk at work from a heart attack?

I had an acquaintance from high-school, a model of health, who died from such an attack at age 32. How and why does this happen?

There are some things we don’t yet know about heart disease, but an Israeli company, may be able to help.

Itamar Medical has developed a test, akin to a blood pressure test, which for 15 minutes sits on your fingers to measure your heart health. The device, called the EndoPAT is able, reports researchers, to give a doctor a 7 year lead time, to know if early signs of heart disease are setting in.

The EndoPAT measures arterial blood flow and is able to determine if a person is losing elasticity in their arterial walls. If so, this could be an early symptom of heart disease. For those at risk, and those who are the model of health, we can now know many years in advance if there is cause for concern. Unlike current tests like an ultrasound test which looks for plaque buildup in the arteries, once you find the plaque, it’s almost already too late to reverse the damage, says Itamar’s CEO Dov Rubin who I spoke with a couple of weeks ago.

On the other hand, if I were to use the EndoPAT, a doctor could notice the onset of heart disease 7 years into the future. Even people who look from the outside to be models of health, can begin to augment their diet or start taking statins if doctors notice anything unusual.

Whoopi Goldberg tried the EndoPAT on an April episode of The View, and was relieved to find out from Dr. Lamm that her heart looked to be functioning well, at least for the next 7 years.

The good news is that centres in Canada are now testing the EndoPAT. Unlike in America where it is cleared by the FDA for use at private clinics, and endorsed by prestigious medical centres like the Mayo Clinic, Health Canada has a different approach, so it will take some time until you can use the EndoPAT at your family doctor’s clinic. I’ll report back when it’s available.

In the meantime, the device is now being investigated by a number of centres across Canada:

• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research in Toronto
• The University of Western Ontario in London
• The Foothills Hospital in Calgary
• The University of British Columbia (Greg Miller) in Vancouver
• The PHC, Providence Health ( Sammy Chan) in Vancouver
• The School of Environmental Health in Vancouver
• The Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre  in Halifax
• The Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research in Montreal
• The Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal
• Hopital de Hull in Hull
• The Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Winnipeg

::Itamar Medical website

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