Adults can undo heart disease risk by changing lifestyle

June 30, 2014
Science Daily/Northwestern University
The heart is more forgiving than you may think -- especially to adults who try to take charge of their health, a new study has found. When adults in their 30s and 40s decide to drop unhealthy habits that are harmful to their heart and embrace healthy lifestyle changes, they can control and potentially even reverse the natural progression of coronary artery disease, scientists found.

"This finding is important because it helps to debunk two myths held by some health care professionals," Spring said. "The first is that it's nearly impossible to change patients' behaviors. Yet, we found that 25 percent of adults made healthy lifestyle changes on their own. The second myth is that the damage has already been done -- adulthood is too late for healthy lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of developing coronary artery disease. Clearly, that's incorrect. Adulthood is not too late for healthy behavior changes to help the heart."

The bad news is that 40 percent of this sample lost healthy lifestyle factors and acquired more bad habits as they aged. "That loss of healthy habits had a measurable negative impact on their coronary arteries," Spring said. "Each decrease in healthy lifestyle factors led to greater odds of detectable coronary artery calcification and higher intima-media thickness. Adulthood isn't a 'safe period' when one can abandon healthy habits without doing damage to the heart. A healthy lifestyle requires upkeep to be maintained."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140630164517.htm