http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=212980
January 25, 2010
www.tehrantimes.com
Heart group lists 7 essentials for heart health
DALLAS (AP) -- Here are the seven secrets to a long life: Stay away from
cigarettes. Keep a slender physique. Get some exercise. Eat a healthy diet and
keep your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar in check.
Research shows that most 50-year-olds who do that can live another 40 years
free of stroke and heart disease, two of the most common killers, says Dr.
Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association. The heart association
published the advice online Wednesday in the journal Circulation.
The group also is introducing an online quiz to help people gauge how close
they are to the ideal. If you fall a bit short, it offers tips for improving.
"These seven factors - if you can keep them ideal or control them - end up
being the fountain of youth for your heart," said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, a
cardiologist who was lead author of the statement. "You live longer, you live
healthier longer, you have much better quality of life in older age, require
less medication, less medical care."
Specifically, those with ideal cardiovascular health can answer yes to the
following seven questions:
. Never smoked or quit more than one year ago.
. Body mass index less than 25.
. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous
exercise each week.
. Meet at least four of these dietary recommendations: 4 1/2 cups of fruit and
vegetables a day; two or more 3.5-ounce servings a week of fish; three or more
1-ounce servings of fiber-rich whole grains a day; less than 1,500 milligrams a
day of salt.
. Total cholesterol of less than 200.
. Blood pressure below 120/80.
. Fasting blood glucose less than 100.
The online quiz calculates a score based on the answers, 10 being the ideal.
Doctors say the quiz is a good way for people to get a handle on how they're
doing, especially since people often think they're doing better than they
actually are.
The heart association found just that in a recent survey that showed 39 percent
of Americans thought they had ideal heart health, yet 54 percent of those had
been told they had either a heart disease risk factor or needed to make a
lifestyle change to improve heart health, or both.
With America's obesity epidemic, weight especially is a pitfall for patients
trying to meet these seven health factors, doctors say.
"Many people are surprised to find out how overweight they may be," said Dr.
Randal Thomas, director of the cardiovascular health clinic at the Mayo Clinic.
Lloyd-Jones, also chair of the preventive medicine department at Northwestern
University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said, "People I think are far too
accepting of their waistlines."
Thomas praises the online tool for giving people a score so they'll have
something to work toward. It offers advice for problem areas: for instance,
advising someone who's over weight to set a goal of losing a pound a week by
burning up to 3,500 more calories than are taken in.
Yancy, the heart association president and medical director of the Baylor Heart
and Vascular Institute in Dallas, said the organization has a goal for 2020 of
improving cardiovascular health of Americans by 20 percent while reducing
deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent.
He said that in the last decade, there's already been a nearly 40 percent
reduction in death from heart disease and a nearly 35 percent reduction in
death from stroke. He said those goals were achieved with improvements in
treatments and prevention.
Linda Alvarado, 54, of Houston, said she knows how hard - and important - the
changes can be. After having a quadruple bypass at the age of 47, she improved
her diet and exercise, losing 40 pounds. Recently though, with a new 40-minute
commute, some of those diet and exercise commitments have been put aside. While
she's kept the lost pounds off, she would like to lose five more pounds.
"It's really up to you," Alvarado said.
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