Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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Leslie Beck
Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009 07:57PM EDT
It's certainly not new advice: eat better, exercise more, manage your weight, limit alcohol, and don't smoke to help ward off heart disease. Even just making one lifestyle change can lower your risk. But it's advice worth repeating.
Two studies, published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association underscore the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle. The findings: Adhering to a combination of low-risk lifestyle behaviours can dramatically reduce your odds of developing high blood pressure and heart failure.
In the first study, researchers from Boston followed 83,882 healthy women, aged 27 to 44, for 14 years to examine the relationship between six lifestyle and diet factors and the risk of being diagnosed with hypertension. These factors included having a body mass index of less than 25, 30 minutes of daily vigorous exercise, modest alcohol intake (less than one drink per day), use of non-prescription pain killers (i.e. aspirin, acetaminophen) less than once per week, taking 400 micrograms of folic acid, and a diet that closely matched the DASH diet.
The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is low in saturated fat and emphasizes fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and low-fat dairy products, food choices high in fibre, calcium, magnesium and potassium – nutrients linked with lower blood pressure.
All six lifestyle factors have been previously linked with loweringthe risk of developing hypertension, and many have been shown to reduce elevated blood pressure. When each factor was assessed individually, body mass index was the most powerful predictor of hypertension.
Women with a BMI of 30 or greater were almost five times more likely to develop high blood pressure than were those with a BMI of less than 23. (BMI is calculated as your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. For adults, a BMI of 25 or more signals overweight; 30 or more indicates obesity.)
Adhering to a combination of low-risk factors offered even greater protection; the more low-risk factors women had, the lower their risk for hypertension. Women who were low risk for three factors – healthy BMI, daily vigorous exercise, and a DASH-style diet – had a 54 per cent reduced risk of high blood pressure. Adding a modest alcohol intake into the equation – four low-risk factors – reduced the risk by 72 per cent. Women who had all six low-risk factors were 80 per cent less likely to develop high blood pressure compared to those who lacked them.
The researchers also estimated how many cases of newly diagnosed hypertension could have been avoided had all women in the study adhered to a combination of healthy behaviours. If all women were low risk for all six factors, an estimated 78 per cent of new cases of hypertension could have been prevented. Had all the women had a healthy BMI, exercised daily and followed a healthy diet, one-half of all new cases could have been averted.
The second study included data from 20,900 healthy men who were followed for 22 years to assess the impact of six healthy habits on the lifetime risk of heart failure, which is usually preceded by risk factors such as high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and obesity.
Your lifetime risk of a disease is the risk of ever developing it during your remaining lifetime. It's estimated that one in every five adults aged 40 will succumb to heart failure in their remaining years.
In this study, men who exercised regularly, drank modestly, did not smoke, who were not overweight and had a diet that included breakfast cereal (at least once per week) and fruits and vegetables (at least four daily servings) had a lower lifetime risk of heart failure.
Men who adhered to none of these behaviours had a lifetime risk of 21 per cent. The lifetime risk dropped to 10 per cent among men who followed four or more of these low-risk habits.
The findings from these studies share a common message. Modifying one lifestyle factor can guard against high blood pressure and heart failure but adopting a combination of factors offers even greater protection.
If you're already implementing one – or more – of the healthy habits below, take action to engage in another. Doing so can help prevent heart disease and greatly enhance your overall health.
Control your weight
If your BMI is over 25, pinpoint specific areas in your diet that need adjusting. Common blunders include skipping breakfast, hefty portion sizes, no midday snack, too many sweets and snacking after dinner.
Keep a food diary for two weeks to highlight areas for improvement. Once you start writing down what you eat, chances are your eating habits will improve.
Adopt a DASH-style diet
To boost your intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium, include fruits and vegetables in all your meals and snacks to consume seven to 10 daily servings combined. Get two servings of low fat dairy products each day. Eat legumes or nuts four times per week. For more on the DASH diet, visit www.dashdiet.org.
Include whole grains
Start the day with a bowl of whole grain cereal. Read labels to choose one that's 100 per cent whole grain and has at least five grams of fibre per serving.
Make most of your daily grain servings – bread, crackers, rice, pasta – whole grain instead of refined (white).
Reduce sodium
Healthy adults need only 1,300 to 1,500 milligrams of sodium daily. Read nutrition information on food labels and restaurant websites to help you consume at most 2,300 milligrams per day – the upper limit.
Include daily exercise
Aim to work up a sweat for 30 minutes most days of the week. Physical activity lowers blood pressure and decreases the risk of hypertension.
Moderate alcohol
If you drink, limit your intake to one a day (women) and one to two per day (men). Higher intakes contribute to weight gain and can boost blood pressure.
Take folic acid
It's thought this B vitamin promotes healthy blood pressure by keeping arteries and other blood vessels flexible. To ensure your meeting your daily requirement of 400 micrograms (0.4 milligrams), take a multivitamin supplement. (Unless you're pregnant or advised by your doctor to so, I don't advise getting more that 0.4 milligrams from a supplement.)
Foods rich in the nutrient include cooked spinach, lentils, black beans, asparagus and artichokes.
Quit smoking
Smoking speeds up heart rate, damages the cells that line blood vessels, lowers HDL (good) cholesterol and can increase the tendency for blood clots to form which can cause heart attack and stroke.
Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based dietitian at the Medcan Clinic, is on CTV's Canada AM every Wednesday. www.lesliebeck.com.
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More recent pieces from Leslie Beck
Carbs: the secret to slim Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009 06:39PM EDT
Recent studies suggest a high-carb diet can be effective for losing weight and even outperforms a high-protein diet for cutting body fat and lowering cholesterol
Vegetarian diet protects against some cancers Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009 09:59AM EDT
Study reports that vegetarians have a 64% lower risk than meat-eaters of stomach cancer, 53% lower for multiple myeloma
Take a vacation from work, not healthy eating Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2009 07:13PM EDT
Whether your summer plans include sightseeing or road trips, here's how you can keep your weight on track
To curb salt, cut the condiments, read labels Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009 06:56PM EDT
There are easy ways to reduce the amount of sodium from your diet
The power of positive drinking Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2009 06:36PM EDT
As real summer begins, how much water is healthy?
Multivitamins aid infant birth weight Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2009 12:00AM EDT
A one-a-day supplement should be part of pregnant women's nutritional regimen
What's the healthiest oil? Depends on what you're cooking Tuesday, Jun. 02, 2009 07:45PM EDT
Olive oil may be highly regarded for its heart-healthy properties, but it may not be the best choice for your personal health needs
Go ahead, nuke those carrots Tuesday, May. 26, 2009 07:31PM EDT
Raw isn't always more nutritious. A new study shows that cooking certain veggies can boost their antioxidant content
A DASH of prevention can protect your heart Wednesday, May. 13, 2009 12:00AM EDT
The diet, known for its ability to lower high blood pressure, may also cut in half your risk of heart failure
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Latest Comments

m.r.

7/22/2009 4:52:00 AM
adopting a healthy lifestyle is simple; execution does take some effort! it should be started as young as possible but it is never too late to start.not only will people feel better, avoid illness, and live longer but they will help prevent our health care system from going bust. in the meantime it can reduce demand for resources.last word; medicines delay severe illness; good lifestyle may prevent them!

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hartsmart

7/21/2009 10:42:50 PM
My turn: I too must be allowed to recycle valid food-life arguments.I too have written a book 'Hart Smart Living' available Amazon US, not carried in Canada.hartsmartliving.com contains the practical entry into food comfort. Think!The two studies mentioned in the above article only confirm the damage done to normal nutrition. Water, even, has given way to foreign liquid concoctions, 'health' labeled!Obesity--carbohydritis has remained unstoppable.The Dash diet--eat better? Eat healthier? Proven wrong for decades.Health Editor Paul Taylor has the first of 25 food-health-life related articles available to Globe and Mail.

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