Thursday, March 8, 2012

Healthy Habits Early In Adulthood and Their Effect on Cardiovascular

health habitsThere has been much talk about the importance of a healthy lifestyle in order to reduce the risk of heart disease later in life.? And there has for a while now been the understanding that family history plays a large part in the likelihood of a person experiencing cardiovascular problems later in life.? Now a recent study carried out at Northwestern University has shown, for the first time, an important link between healthy habits with lifestyle during the early adulthood years and high cardiovascular fitness later in life.

Research carried out on 3,154 young adults aged between 18 and30 over a 25 year period found that those young adults who could maintain five vital healthy lifestyle factors were able to maintain a low cardiovascular disease risk profile into their middle ages.? These five lifestyle factors include regular exercise, healthy eating habits, no smoking, no or moderate alcohol intake, and a low or average body mass index (BMI).

A cardiovascular risk profile is a rating of the likelihood of a person developing heart disease within the next 10 years.? Several blood tests are taken which measure cholesterol and fat levels in the blood.

Participants were tested at 12 months and it was found that 44% had a low cardiovascular risk profile.? At 20 years only 24.5% showed a low risk profile.? 60% of those who maintained the five healthy lifestyle factors continued to show a low cardiovascular risk profile.? Of those who did not maintain the five lifestyle factors, only 5% showed a low risk profile.? This shows a strong and direct link between healthy habits and cardiovascular fitness.

According to this research, maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle dramatically reduces your chances of suffering heart problems later in life.? And the earlier one starts these five lifestyle factors, the more likely they will continue throughout later life, according to Dr Marla Mendelson, a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.? She states ?Some of the clogging in the arteries starts forming in the late teenage years, so the earliest you can do something, the better off you are.?

It seems that the earlier someone chooses heart healthy habits, the more likely these will become long term lifestyle habits that they will carryhealth habits throughout their lives, maintaining optimal cardiovascular fitness.? This means their risk of developing heart disease is greatly reduced.? It also seems to show that lifestyle has more of an impact on the incidence of heart disease than what family history does.

The wiser we are at an earlier age of creating healthy habits with our lifestyle choices, the greater our cardiovascular fitness throughout our lives.? Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.? We may not be able to do anything about our family history of heart disease, but we can all make significant changes to our lifestyle in order to remain at a low risk of developing heart disease in later life.

Source: http://www.naturalhealthwellnessreview.com/healthy-habits-and-cardiovascular-health

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