If you have an optimally healthy heart in middle age, you can live up to 14 years longer without cardiovascular disease compared to your peers with one or two factors of heart disease, according to the latest research.
This issue is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
We have shown that many people surviving old age develop cardiovascular disease, but people who have optimally healthy hearts for longer are free from cardiovascular disease, comments lead author John T. Wilkins of Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, USA.
In his opinion, this means that it is worth doing everything possible to keep the risk of heart disease as low as possible and increase the chances of a longer and healthier life.
The authors of the study analyzed data collected in five well-known multi-year population studies conducted in 1964-2008 under the aegis of the US National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood. This included the famous Framingham Heart Study.
Initially, none of the participants in these studies suffered from cardiovascular disease.
Data was collected on factors that influence the development of heart disease, such as blood pressure, total cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking. All of them can be modified by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Researchers tested the risk of developing various cardiac problems (fatal and non-fatal) from middle age (45, 55 and 65) to the elderly. These were: coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and deaths from other cardiovascular causes.
It turned out that the risk of developing cardiovascular disease throughout life was high and amounted to over 30%. for all people – even those in middle age who were least burdened with factors increasing this risk. For men, it was generally greater than for women.
Still, middle-aged people with optimally healthy hearts lived an average of 14 years longer without cardiovascular disease than their peers with at least two risk factors.
Overall, more than 55 percent. of the subjects had one or more factors that increased their risk of cardiovascular disease. (PAP)
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