FutureLearn

Heart Health: A Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease (FutureLearn)

Offered by University of Reading,
Heart Health: A Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn more about how your heart works, the causes of heart disease and how to keep your heart healthy with this free online course. Learn how to keep your heart healthy. Your heart beats around 100,000 times a day, pumping blood around your body to deliver oxygen and nutrients, while taking away waste products. When your heart is unhealthy, it can’t perform this vital task so effectively.

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This course will improve your knowledge of how the heart works, the causes of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and heart failure and what you can do to avoid them.
Each week you’ll be able to get hands on with a practical activity, helping you to apply the knowledge you’ll gain on the course, to better understand your own heart.

Syllabus

Week 1: Cardiovascular anatomy and physiology
Week 2: Angina, heart attacks and strokes
Week 3: Heart failure, hypertension, valvular disease and arrhythmias
Week 4: Risk factors and prevention

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Describe the structure and function of the cardiovascular system, including the circulatory system and heart
  • Describe the basis of several cardiovascular diseases including heart attacks, strokes, hypertension and heart failure
  • Evaluate the various risk factors that can contribute towards increasing a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease
  • Discuss some of the lifestyle choices that we can make to try and reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease
  • Apply theoretical knowledge and investigate a topic through practical activities
  • Investigate and process data
  • Investigate a topic and evaluate the reliability of your sources

Who is the course for?
This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in how the heart works and the diseases that commonly affect it. It will help if you have a basic understanding of human biology, but we’ll explain things in a way that will be easy for those who are unfamiliar with the subject. If you get stuck, you can always ask questions in the comments and other learners may be able to help you.
Healthcare practitioners may also enjoy this as a gentle refresher or resource to share with patients.

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