5 Ways to Cut Women's Heart Attacks
Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Can Slash Women's Heart Attack Risk by Up to 92%
By
Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By
Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2007 -- New research shows that women could cut their heart attack
risk by up to 92% by doing these five things:
- Eat lots of veggies, fruit, fish, whole grains, and legumes.
- Drink a moderate amount of alcohol.
- Practice girth control (keep your waist trimmer than your hips).
- Walk or bike for 40 minutes daily and get another hour of weekly
exercise.
- Don't smoke.
That may be familiar advice. But the new study makes the payoff for a
heart-healthy lifestyle crystal clear.
Mission Possible
"The five healthy diet and lifestyle factors are not impossible to
follow," researcher Agneta Akesson, PhD, MPH, tells WebMD via email.
The study shows "how much YOU can -- based on your own motivation --
decrease your risk of [heart attack] by the different healthy lifestyle factors
and in particular by the combined healthy diet and lifestyle," says
Akesson.
"It is up to ourselves what we choose to follow," says Akesson, who
works in the nutritional epidemiology division at the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Preventing Women's Heart Attacks
Akesson's team studied more than 24,000 postmenopausal women in Sweden.
In 1997, the women reported their diet, exercise, and other lifestyle
habits. None had cancer, heart disease, or type 2 diabetes at the time.
Akesson and colleagues followed the women for six years, on average. During
that time, 51 women died of a heart attack and 257 women survived a heart
attack.
Heart attacks were 92% less likely in women who had all five heart-smart
habits compared with women with none of those habits.
But not many women were in that group. Only 5% of the women claimed to have
all five heart-healthy habits.
If all the women had been in that group, more than three-quarters of the
heart attacks might have been prevented, the study shows.
Step by Step
Every heart-healthy habit helped prevent heart attacks in the women in
Akesson's study.
For instance, women who ate healthfully and drank modestly were 57% less
likely to have a heart attack than other women.
That's not as high as the 92% drop in heart attack risk for women who also
didn't smoke, had a healthy waist-to-hip-ratio, and exercised regularly. But
it's better than nothing.
The study appears in today's edition of the Archives of Internal
Medicine.
How Exercise Helps the Heart
Another new study shows how exercise helps lower women's risk of heart
problems.
Regular physical activity helps prevent heart attacks and other heart
"events" in three ways:
- Through blood chemicals related to inflammation, blood vessel function, and
clotting
- By improving blood pressure
- By improving cholesterol levels
Data for the study came from more than 27,000 healthy women aged 45 and
older who were studied for nearly 11 years, on average.
During that time, 979 women had a heart "event" such as a heart
attack, stroke, or coronary artery bypass.
Women who reported regular physical exercise were the least likely to have a
heart "event" during the study, note the researchers.
They included Samia Mora, MD, MHS, of Harvard Medical School and Boston's
Brigham and Women's Hospital. Their study appears online in the journal
Circulation.
What About Men?
Akesson and Mora only studied women. But they expect that the general
findings would also apply to men.
"I am convinced that men would benefit from a similar healthy diet and
lifestyle as the women did in our study," Akesson tells WebMD.
More research is needed to see how closely the results match in men and
women, Akesson adds.
Likewise, Mora tells WebMD via email that "there is no reason to believe
that the findings would not also apply to men, but of course, further studies
should be carried out in men."
"Data from previous studies have clearly shown that exercise and
physical activity reduce cardiovascular events in both men and women (around
30% to 50% reduction in events with no substantial difference in gender),"
Mora writes.
SOURCES: Akesson, A. Archives of Internal Medicine, Oct. 22, 2007;
vol 167: pp 2122-2127. Agneta Akesson, PhD, MPH, Division of Nutritional
Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute,
Stockholm, Sweden. Mora, S. Circulation, Oct. 23, 2007; rapid access
online edition. Samia Mora, MD, MHS, Donald W. Reynolds Center for
Cardiovascular Research and the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
and the Divisions of Preventive Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. News release,
JAMA/Archives. News release, American Heart Association.
© 2007 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Heart RSS
