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Eating right, exercising and not smoking are all important for staying healthy. But a new study shows that these lifestyle choices can reduce the risk a woman will die from sudden cardiac arrest by a full 92 percent.
More than a quarter of a million people die from sudden heart failure in the U.S. each year. And most had not been diagnosed with heart disease—or even considered high risk.
In the new study of more than 81,000 Caucasian women, about 80 percent of sudden deaths were linked to lifestyle factors.
Those with the lowest risk got at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, followed a healthful Mediterranean-style diet high in fibers and lean protein, were not overweight and didn’t currently smoke. The findings are in the Journal of the American Medical Association. [Stephanie Chiuve et al., "Adherence to a Low-Risk, Healthy Lifestyle and Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death Among Women"]
These preventive measures might be especially important for women, who are less than half as likely as men to be diagnosed with heart disease or dysfunction before a fatal attack.
And if these factors hold true for men and other groups of women, making healthy lifestyle choices could save more than 200,000 Americans from sudden cardiac arrest death each year.
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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4 Comments
Add CommentAre these findings for women qualitatively distinct from the factors contributing to men's risk of heart disease?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbetter lifestyle, more nutritious and healthy diet, then better health.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyet another article telling us how lifestyle changes can help us avoid one death or another. how about research into what lifestyle factors could help achive a desirable death? i guess most deaths from "sudden heart death" are accompanied by some period of extreme pain and fear, but are there lifestyle factors that contribute to silent acute myocardial infarct? i'd happily swap a couple of decades of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or dementia for popping off in my sleep.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, sudden cardiac arrest is for boys and girls equally 'arresting'; it's only a matter of time...with men taking the lead at an earlier phase of life ( fifties ), women following suit after menopause. ( Oestrogen seems to have the cushioning effect of a few years' time-delay for ladies of a certain age..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA propos 'lifestyle', regarding prevention of 'lifestyle diseases': a 'good' lifestyle ( i.e. a relatively grease/salt/treacle-free feeding habit with salad days replacing beer,bacon & barbecues, and mainly bourbon - and booze -free) yes! That seems to be all that's needed to lower our risk of death - from cancer to cardiac arrest.
Blame it on Darwin : a true primate's lifestyle simply wasn't meant to be greasy or cheesy in the first place. Natural selection extends also to our selection of natural foods that don't clog up our convoluted herbivore-ish gut system! 'Colour Eating without Heating' is the recommended menu for a longer life.