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Chances are, at least
one person has asked you, tauntingly: “Why are you bothering
with the Pritikin Program? Aren’t 50% of all heart attacks
caused by your DNA?”
Now you have great ammunition to throw back. Two huge studies on
over 500,000 people recently reported that nearly all heart attacks
affect people who have at least one of the following four lifestyle-related
risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or
a cigarette smoking habit, debunking the myth that a heart attack
can strike anyone.
In the first study, from Northwestern University of Chicago, scientists
analyzed data from three previous multi-year studies that surveyed
nearly 400,000 men and women. The analysis found that 87% to 100%
of people who suffered a fatal heart attack had at least one of
the above four risk factors, often, for many years.*
Now, more than ever, wrote lead author Philip Greenland, M.D., and
colleagues in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),
people must take action. They need to take control of their health,
lose weight, and eliminate as much as possible these lifestyle risk
factors. “Based on these and related findings concerning the
major risk factors, we suggest that preventing development of unfavorable
levels of blood cholesterol and blood pressure, cigarette smoking,
diabetes, and unfavorable body weight (as a precursor of unfavorable
blood lipid and blood pressure levels and diabetes) should be given
even greater priority than is presently the case.”
In the second study, an analysis of roughly 120,000 men and women
who were enrolled in 14 international clinical trials, scientists
found that at least 85% of those who had angioplasty surgery or
suffered from angina had at least one of the four risk factors.**
“It is increasingly clear that the four conventional risk
factors and their resulting health risks are largely preventable
by a healthy lifestyle,” wrote lead author Umesh Khot, M.D.,
and his team from Indiana Heart Physicians in Indianapolis.
In an accompanying editorial in the same issue of JAMA, scientists
at the University of Alabama, Drs. John Cano and Ami Iskandrian,
echo the two studies’ conclusions, writing that the studies
“convincingly challenge the frequent claim that ‘only
50 percent’ of coronary heart disease is attributable to the
conventional risk factors of smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and
hyperlipidemia [abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels].”
* JAMA, 2003; 290: 891-897.
** JAMA, 2003; 290: 898-904.
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