And it’s good news since studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women and men.
February is American Heart Month.
This latest study used data came from 88,940 women between age 27 and 44 enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II from 1991 to 2011. The study looked at how many women smoked (or quit), what their body mass index was, what their physical activity level was, how much they watched TV and what their diet was like.
In 20 years of follow-up, there were 456 cases of coronary heart disease.
Researchers noticed that of the women who didn’t have coronary heart disease and stayed healthy, the greater majority had six lifestyle habits in common.
So, here is what you need to do. And while women were studied in this case, these habits would be good for men’s hearts, too.
Don’t smoke, or stop smoking
Smoking doesn’t hurt just your lungs and age your skin prematurely, it also hurts your heart. In fact, nearly as many smokers die of heart disease as they do from lung cancer. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
The chemicals in cigarettes cause physical damage to your heart, and they mess with your blood cells. There’s a reason the World Health Organization calls smoking the “gradual killer.”
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Moderate drinking can reduce inflammation, promote healthy cholesterol levels, improve insulin resistance and help blood vessels function properly.
The CDC suggests that you shouldn’t start drinking for the health impact if you don’t drink already. There are a lot of extra calories in alcohol.
Final advice
Andrea Kaye Chomistek, the study’s lead author, said an important takeaway from the report is that women who followed just one of these six habits improved their chances of avoiding heart disease.
“It is not do all or nothing to succeed,” said Chomistek, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Indiana University, Bloomington. “Even if you targeted one, two of these behaviors, your chances improve significantly.”
The other takeaway, she said, is that you should start doing one (or all) these things while you are still young, long before you may show any signs that you could be heart sick.
“People in their 30s and 40s often feel invincible and don’t feel they need to worry about heart disease, but that’s not the case,” she said. “We saw plenty of cases of heart disease in that category, not a huge number, but women did develop risks.
“These are simple things women can do to avoid going in that direction.”
