Is an ounce of prevention really worth a pound of cure? Or how about an extra year of life?
Cardiovascular experts believe so, calculating that if everyone with a risk factor for heart attack or stroke – 78 percent of the American adult population! – got serious about prevention, it would boost the average life expectancy by 1.3 years.
Researchers determined that if everyone took “to heart” the known preventive strategies for cardiovascular problems and made positive lifestyle changes, the incidence of heart attacks would decrease by 63 percent, while stroke would drop by 31 percent.
That is no small benefit. But unfortunately, it requires no small feat.
The most effective strategies for reducing heart disease risk involve a little work and a lot of willpower. Many people recognize they are important components of a healthy lifestyle, but choose not to adopt them anyway. Scientists have determined that the best prevention activities include:
- Taking a daily aspirin if you are at high-risk (and, of course, if approved by your physician)
- Keeping any tendency to an elevated blood sugar or pre-diabetes under control
- Losing sufficient weight if you are obese
- Reducing your blood pressure, especially if you have diabetes
- Lowering your LDL “bad” cholesterol, especially if you already have coronary artery disease
- Quitting smoking
“Approximately three-fourths of U.S. adults would benefit from at least one recommended prevention activity,” experts from the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society wrote recently in the journal Circulation.
If everyone at risk adopted the recommended prevention strategies, some 27.4 million heart attacks could be avoided over the next 30 years. (That’s over 2,500 a day!)
Heart disease is currently the most common cause of death in the United States, killing men and women in staggering numbers. Although DNA plays a role, accounting for about one-half of a man’s risk of heart attack and one-third of a woman’s, there is no denying that lifestyle decisions are also a major contributor.
That’s why Navigenics gives members of our genetic testing service information on nearly two dozen proven, promising or preliminary heart attack prevention measures. Your genes don’t have to be your destiny – if you know how to make up for them.