Your Heart Health - Get Started Now
Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle makes a difference, even if the change does not come until middle age, say researchers in the American Journal of Medicine.
In fact, people who eat right and exercise more can substantially reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and death even if they are in their 50s or 60s.
Consuming at least five fruits and vegetables daily, exercising at least 2.5 hours per week, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking can lessen your chances of heart trouble by 35 percent, and your risk of dying by 40 percent, compared to people with less healthy lifestyles.
Researchers wanted to test whether or not reaching middle age makes it too late to adopt healthy habits and improve your health.
"We call this the turning-back-the-clock study," says lead researcher Dr. Dana E. King.
"We want to emphasize that it's not too late to change, and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle don't accrue only to people who have been doing this all along, but you can make changes in your 50s and 60s and have a healthier, longer life because of it," he says.
Dr. King explains that some people in middle age do not change, because they think the damage is done.
"In fact, in this study, the chances of dying or having a heart attack were reduced by a third after just four years of living a healthy lifestyle," notes Dr. King.
Dr. King collected data on 15,792 men and women ages 45 to 64 who took part in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.
The researchers found that during four years of follow-up, the benefit of switching to a healthy lifestyle after age 45 became apparent. In addition, the benefit happened even with modest changes in health habits.
Moreover, a healthy lifestyle was beneficial when compared with people with three or fewer healthy habits, not just compared to people with no healthy habits or only one of the healthy habits.
While people with only three healthy habits had lower mortality, they did not reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease.
Unfortunately, only 8.5 percent of people in the study practiced these four healthy behaviors, and only 8.4 percent adopted these lifestyle changes after age 45.
Dr. King says that men, African Americans, those without a college education, those with lower income, or those with a history of high blood pressure or diabetes were all less likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle past age 45.
One expert notes that living healthy reduces your risk of other diseases, too.
"Most experts agree that a health-promoting lifestyle - eating well, being active, not smoking - can cut overall risk of heart disease by 80 percent, cancer risk by 60 percent, and diabetes risk by 90 percent," says Dr. David Katz, at Yale University School of Medicine.
Dr. King shows that it may never be too late to start over, says Dr. Katz.
"Healthy living is the most powerful medicine of all,” he says. “It requires no prescription, and all of the side effects are beneficial, too. It can, admittedly, be tough at times to get there from here, but it's well worth it, and anytime is a good time to start."
Another expert agrees.
"These are very encouraging results," says Alice H. Lichtenstein, D.Sc., director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab at Tufts University.
"They confirm that adopting heart-healthy behaviors, regardless of age, can lead to clear benefits," says Dr. Lichtenstein.
"Additionally, by identifying individuals who are more likely to adopt heart-healthy behaviors and who is not, more targeted programs to help the more unlikely ones to change can be developed," she says.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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Obesity is a chronic disease affecting increasing numbers of children and adolescents as well as adults.
Obesity rates among children in the US have doubled since 1980 and have tripled for adolescents. More than 15 percent of children aged six to 19 are considered overweight compared to over 60 percent of adults who are considered overweight or obese.
Earlier onset of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity-related depression in children and adolescents is being seen by healthcare professionals.
The longer a person is obese, the more significant obesity-related risk factors become.
Given the chronic diseases and conditions associated with obesity and the fact that obesity is difficult to treat, prevention is extremely important.
Many of the strategies that produce successful weight loss and maintenance help prevent obesity.
Improving eating habits and increasing physical activity play a vital role in preventing obesity.
Eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily. A vegetable serving is one cup of raw vegetables or one-half cup of cooked vegetables or vegetable juice. A fruit serving is one piece of small to medium fresh fruit, one-half cup of canned or fresh fruit or fruit juice, or one-fourth cup of dried fruit.
Choose whole grain foods such as brown rice and whole wheat bread. Avoid highly processed foods made with refined white sugar, flour, and saturated fat.
Weigh and measure food in order to be able to gain an understanding of portion sizes. For example, a 3-ounce serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards. Avoid supersized menu items.
Balance the food "checkbook." Taking in more calories than are expended for energy will result in weight gain. Regularly monitor weight.
Avoid foods that are high in "energy density," or that have a lot of calories in a small amount of food. For example, a large cheeseburger with a large order of fries may have almost 1,000 calories and 30 or more grams of fat. By ordering a grilled chicken sandwich or a plain hamburger and a small salad with low-fat dressing, you can avoid hundreds of calories and eliminate much of the fat intake.
For dessert, have fruit or a piece of angel food cake rather than the "death by chocolate" special or three pieces of home-made pie.
Remember that much may be achieved with proper choices in serving sizes.
Accumulate at least 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity activity on most, or preferably all, days of the week. Examples of moderate intensity exercise are walking a 15-minute mile, or weeding and hoeing a garden.
Look for opportunities during the day to perform even ten or 15 minutes of some type of activity, such as walking around the block or up and down a few flights of stairs.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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