No smoking
Stop smoking, watch your cholesterol levels, and for goodness sake keep your blood pressure down. They’re health messages we hear on a regular basis and if you’ve taken them seriously and started looking after yourself, here’s some rewarding news. The advice works.
Researchers have been looking at evidence behind the drop in death rates from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in the United States. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that taking steps to stop CHD developing saved thousands of lives.
The research looked at deaths from CHD between 1980 and 2000, taking into account people who were already CHD patients, and those who were healthy and showed no evidence of heart disease. The number of people dying from CHD in the US dropped by 43 percent in that 20-year period, meaning that 341,745 fewer people died from CHD in 2000, the last year in the study.
Medical advances, such as improvements in the treatment of heart disease, played a part in reducing the death toll. But it was changes in their lifestyle that saved most of these lives. Approximately 316,100 of the reduction in deaths were down to prevention.
It’s a figure that’s hard to ignore. It would seem that preventive measures do work. Adding to those healthy statistics isn’t brain surgery – or surgery of any kind –it’s just making changes in the way you live.
"Knowledge about what has caused these large mortality declines allows us to plan effective measures to reduce disease rates in the future," said lead author Fiona Young, at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University.
Smoking
The message about smoking couldn’t be much clearer: cigarettes are bad for your health in all sorts of ways. Giving them up is a big step in the right direction. From 1980 to 2000, smoking dropped by 12.4 percent in the US population generally and by five percent in CHD patients.
That worked out at around 54,705 fewer deaths in total. 46,315 of these were due to a drop in risk factors in people without symptoms of CHD, and 8,390 were due to a drop in risk factors in CHD patients.
Blood pressure
The study looked at the decrease in mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) among the total US population and in those with CHD. The systolic reading is the top figure and shows the maximum pressure when your heart contracts.
Between 1980 and 2000 SBP dropped by 5.23 mmHG in the US population and by 8.58 mmHg in people with CHD. In total there were around 131,885 fewer deaths. Around 97,555 of these have been attributed to people without CHD, and in people with CHD, there were approximately 34,330 fewer deaths.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol levels dropped by 0.33 mmol/L in the US population as a whole, and by more than double that – 0.68mmol/L in CHD patients. Lower cholesterol levels meant fewer deaths – around 129,510 overall, and about 22,210 due to dropping cholesterol levels in CHD patients.
"It’s long been known heart and circulatory disease is largely preventable and this study reinforces that message," said Judy O’Sullivan, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation.
"So it’s a great shame that coronary heart disease remains the most common cause of premature death in the UK, with someone dying of a heart attack every six minutes.
"People can reduce their risk of developing this disease by leading a healthy lifestyle which should include 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day, avoiding smoking and eating a healthy diet, low in saturated fat."
This doesn’t mean that you should stop taking the medicine, if you’re taking any for CHD and related conditions. But it is encouraging to see evidence that self-help measures can make such a difference.
First published August 6, 2010
Useful websites
Blood Pressure Association - www.bpassoc.org.uk
British Heart Foundation - www.bhf.org.uk. For a free online lifestyle check go to www.bhf.org.uk/heartmatters
NHS Choices Smoke Free - www.smokefree.nhs.uk