Prevention key to heart health
Two new studies by Harvard researchers affirm what doctors have been trying to drill into us for years: adopt a healthy lifestyle and you'll keep your heart healthy.
Sure, to all you diet and fitness buffs out there, this may not be earth shattering news. Still, the studies, which appear in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association drive home the link between behavior and health.
In the first paper, researchers used the Nurses Health Study -- a long-running research project -- to examine the connection between lifestyle and the risk of developing high blood pressure in some 84,000 women between 1991 and 2005. They measured how well the nurses followed advice on six lifestyle factors such as exercising for 30 minutes a day, having a body mass index of less than 25 and even drinking moderate alcohol. Women who followed all six, had about an 80 percent lower risk of developing high blood pressure than those who did not.
The second study, looked at heart failure in men by examining some 21,000 doctors in the Physicians' Health Study from 1982-2008. Men with normal body weight, who never smoked and exercised regularly had a 10 percent risk of developing heart failure, versus a 21 percent risk for men who didn't follow healthy behaviors.
Of course, it may not be not surprising that a health study of doctors and nurses would reveal good results. (Better, than for say, reporters in an overworked newsroom.)
Still, the authors note that their findings are similar to other studies that have found a link between healthy habits and prevention of cardiovascular disease. An accompanying editorial calls for greater public health efforts to help people ward off these preventable illnesses.
"At this point, the national cost of treating cardiovascular diseases cannot be sustained, and prevention is urgent," said Dr. Veronique Roger of the Mayo Clinic. "These studies...underscore that healthy lifestyle will help prevent cardiovascular disease and greatly enhance health, which is a compelling reminder that health is a shared responsibility of individuals and communities."
Comments
as with the endless lamenting about the need for primary care(dating back decades!)so too the current studies supporting the health benefits of exercise and lifestyle. We know what works and what doesn't, both for individuals and the health care system(see Atul Gawande's oft quoted New Yorker piece). Yet we still order up those extra large portions, while we sit on the couch and watch the right wing try to terrify us about "socialized medicine.
Posted by: bxdoc | July 22, 2009 11:03 AM
But, CBO does not score any savings from prevention / wellness and the medical IT and the like, even as Prevention / Wellness is an actual and essential part of the savings, without which the reform would be meaningless.
Prevention / Wellness program can be compared to the 'levee' in flood time. Let's just imagine the cost before disaster and after.
And the company without IT system might be messed up with lots of paper works and hardly survive in the business.
It may be hard to assess the specific number on those parts, even so, at least the substantive amount of remaining $239 billion over a decade could be paid for and the remainder of it would be manageable over time one way or another, I think.
Posted by: hsr0601 | July 22, 2009 12:18 PM
After reactions to three different high blood pressure medicines, I decided to do something different. Consultation with a personal trainer led to two hours a day of exercise, refusing seconds, and avoiding processed food. In 2 1/2 months, I lost over 25 pounds with a 35 point average drop in blood pressure. When people tell me they can't afford a personal trainer, I remind them that my doctor charged more for a 15 minute visit than she does for five hours of her time.
With that in mind, why shouldn't a new health program put more emphsis on a healthy lifestyle?
Posted by: Ultraconservative | July 23, 2009 3:44 PM