Heart Disease Prevention - How Is Social Relationship Linked To Heart Disease?

A healthy lifestyle is definitely paramount in preventing heart disease and other chronic diseases. People often, however, ignore or unaware of another important factor that is linked to development of heart disease: the quality of one’s relationship! Relationship is a connection between people, like marriage, kinship and friendship. Read more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - How Is Social Relationship Linked To Heart Disease?

Prevent Heart Attack In 5 Steps!

A heart attack occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked and the heart cannot get sufficient oxygen. Most heart attacks happen because of coronary heart disease (CHD).

CHD is a condition in which plaque builds up inside of the coronary arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart. The plaque can eventually rupture and a blood clot is formed on the plaque’s surface. The clot, if large enough, could completely block the blood flow through a coronary artery. This would cause the portion of heart muscle fed by the artery starts to die, and healthy tissue is replaced with scar tissue.

Fortunately, heart attack is preventable. A new study by researchers in Sweden revealed that men who take just 5 steps could actually lower their odds of a heart attack by four-fifths, though only 1 percent of men do so on their own. A total of 20,721 healthy men aged between 45 and 79 were followed for 11 years. Their findings were published September 22, 2014 in the ‘Journal of the American College of Cardiology’.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart attack risk can be evaluated at home by looking at lifestyle choices that are under one’s control. These include smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, diet, Type-2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol and in some cases high blood pressure.

In order to determine a man’s risk and how it fluctuates depending on certain factors, the researchers identified a certain 5-step combination as the key to reduce heart attack risk by up to 86 percent. The 5 steps are: do not smoke, have regular exercise, watch waistline, limit alcohol consumption and adopt healthy diet.

The study indicated that men who did not smoke lowered their risk by 36 percent, and men who walked or cycled for at least 40 minutes a day and did other exercise at least a hour per week had a 3 percent lower risk. Those who had a waist circumference below 37 inches had a 12 percent lower risk, and those who drank no more than about 2 drinks a day had a 11 percent lower risk. For those who ate a lot of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, reduced-fat dairy products, whole grains and fish, their risk was 18 percent lower. 

But sadly to note, only 1 percent of the population belonged to the low-risk group that adopted this set of healthy lifestyle practices on their own. Lowering heart attack risk by following healthy lifestyle is not surprising. It is the drastic degree of magnitude dropped that surprised the researchers.

Since changing from high-risk to low-risk behaviors could actually have great impact on cardiovascular health, it is best for people to start adopting healthy lifestyle choices early in their life.

Can Risk of Early Death from Heart Disease or Cancer Be Reduced?

“One should adopt healthy lifestyle” in order to prevent from heart disease, and other medical disorders such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, and so on and so forth. Nevertheless, how many of us will really take this seriously and keep that in mind?

Based on the data provided by 80,000 women in the United States who were between 34 and 59 years old, a long-term study by the Harvard School of Public Health began in 1980. The findings, which were published on September 17, 2008 online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), indicated that women who eat right, exercise and never smoke tobacco were more than halve the risk of dying from heart disease or cancer.

During a period of 24 years, the volunteers participated in the study filled out detailed questionnaires regarding their physical activity, diet, weight, alcohol intake, and disease history. At the end of 2004, 8,882 of the women in the group had died. Record showed that 1,790 and 4,527 of these women died from heart disease and cancer respectively.

According to the calculation made by the researchers, smoking alone accounted for more than a quarter of the deaths. In fact, 55 percent of the death figure could have been avoided if these women had maintained slim, avoided fatty foods and exercised regularly, in addition to not smoking.

The study also found that a glass of wine or beer with dinner every night would offer some help in heart disease prevention. This confirmed earlier research.

Based on the results from the study, the researchers concluded that even small changes in the lifestyle could have a substantial impact on the reduction of mortality rates. Perhaps, people should start changing their lifestyle right away.

Healthy Elderly Lifestyle is the Key to Long Life!

Aging population is an impending phenomenon not only in United States but also in many other countries. If one wants to live longer in good health with good physical function, he or she has to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

For 25 years, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston tracked about 2,400 male doctors whose average age was 72 when they took part in the study in the early 1980s.

Published on February 11, 2008 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study found that those, who exercised 2 to 4 times a week, did not smoke, maintained normal body weight and blood pressure, and avoided diabetes, had a 54 percent chance of living to 90. People having at least one or any combination of these factors were also beneficial, but those who did nothing had only a 4 percent chance of reaching the age of 90.

According to the researchers, people who lived to at least 90 enjoyed better physical function and mental well-being late in their lives than those who died at a younger age. In fact, genetics accounts for only about 25 to 30 percent in determining how long people can live, with other factors playing a bigger role.

In another study appearing in the same journal by Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, the researchers looked at 523 women and 216 men age 97 or older. They found that about a third of these participants lived to this advanced age despite having developed age-associated disease before age 85 such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease or stroke.

In quantifying how certain behaviors affect longevity, another British study, which tracked 20,000 people, revealed in January 2008 that those who exercised, avoided smoking, drank moderately and ate many fruit and vegetables lived 14 years longer on average than people who did none of these things.

It is rather difficult for an individual to initiate lifestyle changes. He or she may prefer to take a pill, which is much easier. Therefore, the onus is on an individual! If there were anything that one could do for a healthy lifestyle, then it would be ‘do not smoke and do exercise’!

Kids Don't Like Healthy Foods, Do You Agree?

If I say nowadays teens do not love vegetables or other healthy foods, I bet many of you will hardly disagree. Reason is simple, healthy foods are simply not yummy to them.

The youngsters just eat whatever they like. The types of food they enjoy most are fast foods, and unarguably, these are usually unhealthy. Either they know very little about what they should eat and what they should not or they simply find these irrelevant to them. That is why so many youngsters become overweight or even obese. The childhood obesity has already become a global epidemic that cause headache for the respective governments.

Adopting unhealthy diet will make these obese kids become victims of many chronic diseases. Heart disease is only one of the many medical disorders they may have to face when they grow up. However, when one is young, it is extremely difficult to talk to them about things that they do not really anticipate. When I was young, I could not listen and agree to advices given by my parents or seniors.

This is understandable because at that time, I just could not visualize exactly the scenario that they tried to depict for me. Surely many of you would have the same experience as mine. Therefore, it is necessary to instil the correct dieting habits to teens from the outset. Perhaps parents should first adopt healthy lifestyle and become role model for their children.

I know a family that seldom dines out. The mother cooks almost every single meal at home and the father and children make effort to come back for almost every single meal. Occasionally, when they dine out, they will simply reject salty or oily foods even they are very delicious. In other words, healthy diet has become part of their life and their subconscious mind tells what they should eat and what they should not.

The following video news titled 'tips to keep kids hale and hearty', posted at The Straits Times reveals the general attitudes towards food for teens in Singapore and what the Health Promotion Board (HPB) in Singapore do to help cultivate the correct mindset about food for youngsters in Singapore.

Enjoy watching!

Tips to keep kids hale and hearty

Lifestyle Could Lead To Massive Death In Next Decade!

In a commentary published on November 21, 2007 in the British journal Nature, a master plan was unveiled by international health experts aiming to avert at least 36 million premature deaths worldwide from 'lifestyle' diseases by 2015.

It is expected that some 388 million people around the world, 80 percent of them come from poorer nations, will die over the next decade from non-communicable diseases if people preserve the current unhealthy lifestyle.

Based on the WHO (World Health Organization) data, 44 percent of the premature deaths will originate from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease and some cancers. This is twice as many as from all infectious diseases combined. The prevention of disability and death from chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs), however, is not receiving sufficient attention.

The researchers felt that by changing behavior and access to known drug treatments, most of the diseases targeted by the initiative could actually be avoided. For example, 17 million of the deaths that could be averted through the recommended measures would be among people under 70 years old. The initiative is supported by members of the Oxford Health Alliance, including the UK Medical Research Council, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are identified as the top culprits, but longer lifespan also play a role in some of the diseases.

Using the model on the Grand Challenges in Global Health programme targeting infectious disease, spearheaded in 2003 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the new 'Grand Challenges' effort lists 20 policy and research priorities to reduce the number of death from CNCDs.

Some of the recommendations include:

• Raising the 'political priority' of CNCDs and promoting healthy lifestyles;
• Strengthening regulations to discourage consumption of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods;
• Developing codes to monitor responsible conduct in the food, beverage and restaurant industries;
• Studies that explore the links between CNCDs, poverty and urbanisation;
• Redistributing health care resources based on burden of diseases;
• Putting a big emphasis on prevention.

Diabetes And Healthy Lifestyle

A study showed that people who make intensive lifestyle changes will reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent, as compared with 31 percent for people who take anti-diabetic drugs.