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Healthy lifestyles linked to lower risk of heart disease

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney July 21, 2009 07:32 PM

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Two research teams from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have delivered more evidence that leading a healthy lifestyle can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

In a study of heart failure, Dr. Luc Djoussé and his colleagues followed more than 20,000 men in the Physicians’ Health Study I who had an average age of 53 and were healthy when the study began. After about 22 years, a man who exercised regularly; ate a diet that included breakfast cereal, fruits and vegetables; did not smoke; and drank moderate amounts of alcohol had a 1 in 10 risk of developing heart failure over his lifetime. A man who adopted none of those practices had a 1 in 5 lifetime risk of heart failure.

Results were similar in a study about women and hypertension. Dr. John P. Forman led a team that followed more than 83,000 healthy women in the Nurses' Health Study. They were measured on how close they came to a normal weight, daily exercise, modest drinking, and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains but low in salt. The women were also evaluated on two other factors linked to low blood pressure: taking over-the-counter painkillers no more than once a week and supplementing their diets with folic acid.

After 14 years, women who followed all six behaviors were 80 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure than women who followed none. Each behavior helped some, but having a normal weight made the greatest difference, lowering the risk of high blood pressure by 40 percent.

The two studies, both reported in tomorrow’s Journal of the American Medical Association, have important public health implications, according to Dr. Véronique L. Roger of the Mayo Clinic.

"At this point, the national cost of treating cardiovascular diseases cannot be sustained, and prevention is urgent," she writes in an editorial appearing with the two articles. "The studies … underscore that healthy lifestyle will help prevent cardiovascular disease and greatly enhance health, which is a compelling reminder that health is the shared responsibility of individuals and communities. This in turn implies that public health policies and clinical care must join forces to achieve effective disease prevention."

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White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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