A healthy lifestyle really can reduce risk of early death

The message is that women who don’t smoke, maintain a healthy weight, eat a healthful diet, and get regular physical exercise significantly reduce their risk of dying from any cause, and particularly from heart disease and cancer, according to Harvard University researchers in a report published in the Sept. 17 online edition of the British Medical Journal, as reported by HealthDay.

By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff

11/25/2008

A new report on how to prolong the chances of a long life may have readers saying “duh” because it’s so basic, but it is worth repeating for those who haven’t already gotten the message.

Even though researchers said the findings seem obvious, they hope that by showing the long-term results of healthy living, people will see that lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of dying from certain diseases.

“Our findings suggest that the combination of lifestyle factors has a substantially larger impact on survival than any single factor,” said lead researcher Rob M. van Dam, an assistant professor of medicine at Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.

He added that while avoiding smoking is a major step for optimal health, it’s important to remember that regular physical activity, a healthy diet and weight management can result in large additional health benefits.

“The results of the study reinforces the need to strengthen public health efforts targeting smoking, as well as efforts that make it easier for people to maintain a healthy weight and diet and to perform regular physical activity,” van Dam said.

The study was conducted over 24 years, with data collected on 77,782 women. It started in 1980 and those in the study responded to yearly questions about lifestyle and health. Over time, 8,882 women died, 1,790 from heart disease and 4,527 from cancer.

Those who never smoked, ate a healthy diet, maintained a healthy weight, and were physically active were estimated to have reduced their overall risk of death by 55 percent, according to researchers. Additionally, these women had a 44 percent reduced risk of dying from cancer and a 72 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, van Dam’s team found.

Individual risk factors were calculated by researchers:

• 28 percent of the deaths were from smoking

• 24 percent were attributed to being overweight

• 17 percent were due to lack of physical activity, and

• 13 percent to not eating a healthy diet.

Researchers noted that among women who didn’t smoke, 22 percent of the deaths were due to being overweight.

An interesting finding of researchers was that 7 percent of the deaths were attributed to not drinking a light to moderate amount of alcohol, which was associated with a lower risk of dying from hearth disease. But worth noting is the fact that heavy alcohol use was associated with a greater risk of dying from cancer.

“Adhering to advice regarding a combination of lifestyle factors, such as nonsmoking, healthy diet and weight, and regular physical activity, can have a large impact on avoiding premature death,” van Dam said. “This is true even for modest lifestyle changes such as 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking.”

Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women & Heart Disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said the study sends the message that women can take control of their health.

“It’s empowering. It allows us to understand that we have control of our lives, of our destiny,” Steinbaum said. “If you really do these things, you can live healthier, you can live longer, and your medical expenditures will actually be less.”

Women need to understand the amount of control they have over their health, she added.

“You are not a victim,” Steinbaum said. “You don’t age and go through menopause and become a sick old woman. That’s not how it has to work. We have to understand that aging doesn’t have to be associated with illness.”

Dr. Jeffrey S. Berger said he thinks doctors need to pay attention to this information and do more to promote health living.

“Physicians have to see this and read this, and make it a part of their daily practice,” Berger said, adding that in addition to writing prescriptions and talking about the latest drug, it is vital for every physician to spend a significant amount of time with their patients discussing these facts, which are often overlooked.