Healthy Steps to Save Your Heart

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Two new studies prove it’s worthwhile to take simple, healthy steps to reduce your heart attack risk.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston studied the link between breakfast cereal and heart failure in more than 21,000 men who were part of the Physician’s Health Study. In the study, 1,018 men had heart failure. Here’s how it broke down according to cereal intake:

· 362 of 6,995 people who did not eat any cereal had heart failure
· 237 of 4,987 people who ate one cereal serving or less a week had heart failure
· 230 of 5,227 people who ate two to six servings of breakfast cereal each week  had heart failure
· 189 of 4,167 people who ate seven ore more servings per week had heart failure

Authors of the study write, “Our data demonstrate that a higher intake of whole grain breakfast cereals is associated with a lower risk of heart failure. If confirmed in other studies, a higher intake of whole grains along with other preventive measures could help lower the risk of heart failure.”

In a second study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied dietary patterns in more than 24,400 postmenopausal women. The women were divided into four groups according to dietary patterns. The patterns included “healthy”, which included women who ate high amounts of vegetables, fruits and legumes; “Western/Swedish”, which included women who ate red meat, processed meat, poultry, rice, pasta, eggs, fried potatoes and fish; “alcohol”, which included women who included wine, liquor, beer and some snacks in their diet; and “sweets”, which included women who ate sweet baked goods, candy, chocolate, jam and ice cream. None of the women had heart disease, diabetes or cancer at the start of the study.

Researchers found two diet types -- “healthy” and “alcohol” -- were associated with a reduced heart attack risk. They report a healthy diet, moderate amounts of alcohol, physical activity, healthy weight and avoiding smoking result in a significantly lower risk of heart attack.

Authors of the study write, “The low-risk diet (high scores for the healthy dietary pattern) characterized by a high intake of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish and legumes, in combination with moderate alcohol consumption (5 grams of alcohol per day or less), along with the three low-risk lifestyle behaviors [not smoking, having a waist-hip ratio of less than the 75th percentile and being physically active], was associated with 92 percent decreased risk compared with findings in women without any low-risk diet and lifestyle factors. This combination of healthy behaviors, present in 5 percent, may prevent 77 percent of myocardial infarctions in the study population.”

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SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2007;167:2080-2085 and 2122-2127