Create A Holiday for Your Heart

Now that the holidays are here let’s enjoy them, but keep in mind our own health. And yes, we can do both with a little bit of oomph in our holidays.

Heart Disease is still one of the top killers in America and there is much we can do to keep ourselves healthy, even over the holidays. Let’s try and eat the best we can and try to fit in some exercise.

For those concerned about death from cardiovascular disease, heart experts have some good news: Regular exercise, a healthy diet and five other simple measures can cut one’s near term risk of death by more than half. Yes, that right, more than half! Yes, we can have an impact on our own health! Let’s remember this over the holidays.

And here’s the bad news: In a nationwide study of more than 17,820 adults, only two met all of the criteria for top-notch cardiovascular health.

The message of the study, presented recently at an American Heart Assn. conference in Chicago, is clear, said Dr. Mark Urman, medical director of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute’s Preventive and Consultative Heart Center.

“Boy, most Americans aren’t very healthy,” said Urman, who wasn’t involved in the research. However, he added, “on a more positive note, the study confirms that individuals can take control of their health. Incremental changes can make a huge difference.”

The changes, dubbed Life’s Simple Seven, were laid out in January as part of an American Heart Assn. campaign to guide people toward “ideal cardiovascular health.” They include:

• At least 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of intense exercise, a week.

• Having a body mass index of less than 25.

• Being a nonsmoker for at least one year.

• Meeting four out of five of the association’s key components for a healthy diet.

• Keeping total cholesterol below 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood.

• Maintaining blood pressure below 120/80 millimeters of mercury.

• Having a fasting blood sugar level below 100 mg/dL of blood.

“These are the sorts of things your grandmother told you,” said Dr. Mary Cushman, a cardiovascular disease researcher at the University of Vermont, who conducted the study.

Cushman used a database of people between 45 and 84 who were already enrolled in a nationwide study on the prevalence of stroke. All of the participants had been evaluated for the factors that make up the seven criteria.

Two individuals met all seven, while 213 people were compliant with six.

Death rates for those who met at least five criteria were 55% lower over the five-year study period than for those who met none, Cushman said.

The analysis showed how much each factor mattered, for every additional criteria met, a person reduced by 15% the chance of dying in the next four years.

“That tells how powerful these things relate to heart disease risk,” Cushman said. “Being as good as you can be on all of these factors is what your goal should be.”

Americans are most compliant when it comes to maintaining healthy blood pressure and abstaining from smoking. More than 80% of those in the survey were nonsmokers, and almost 67% were in the ideal range for blood pressure, Cushman said.

On the flip side, eating a healthy diet had the fewest adherents, only 0.43% of study participants managed to do so.

The ideal diet requires meeting four of five key components based on a 2,000 calories a day meal plan: 41/2 cups of fruits and vegetables a day; two or more 3.5-ounce servings of fish (preferably oily fish) a day; fewer than 450 calories a week of sugar-sweetened beverages; three or more 1-ounce servings a day of whole grains; and less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day.

Cushman couldn’t identify the two people whose score was perfect. “It would be interesting to go back and talk to them,” she said, to see how they live so healthfully.

I know, 2,000 calories a day might be a tall order, but how about some exercise between those larger meals? Just a thought.

Watching TV Could Take Oomph Out of You

An article I read last month by Jeannie Stein of the Los Angeles Times, describes some negative effects of watching TV. I have noticed myself that the more I find time for some form of exercise, the less time I have for watching television and it looks like that is a good thing.

Watching television for hour upon hour obviously isn’t the best way to spend leisure time. Inactivity has been linked to obesity and heart disease. But a new study quantifies TV viewing’s effect on risk of death.

Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer.

As the article stated, researchers found a statistical relationship between long hours of TV viewing and a shortened life span, but the study did not go so far as to find a direct cause.

A journal of the American Heart Assn., looked at health data among 8,800 men and women older than 25 who were part of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Participants recorded their television viewing hours for a week, and researchers separated the results by amount of viewing: those who watched less than two hours of TV a day, those who watched two to four hours a day, and those who watched more than four hours a day.

Researchers found a strong connection between TV hours and death from cardiovascular disease, not just among the overweight and obese, but among people who had a healthy weight and exercised.

“What we showed was that irrespective of a person’s exercise level, sitting for four or more hours watching television was linked to a significant increase in risk of death compared to watching lower amounts of TV,” said Dr. David Dunstan, lead author of the study and professor and head of the Physical Activity Laboratory at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia. “The message here is that in addition to promoting regular exercise, we also need to promote avoiding long periods of sitting, such as spending long hours in front of the computer screen.”

To him, the results weren’t unexpected. “When we’re in that sitting posture, we’re not using our muscles, and we know from extensive evidence that muscle contractions are important for the body’s regulatory processes, such as the ability to break down glucose and use it as energy.”

Dr. Prediman K. Shah, director of the cardiology division of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, agreed. He pointed out that muscles become deconditioned when not used, triggering harmful physiological changes. “If your activity is slowing down, you metabolize cholesterol less and synthesize it more,” he said.

Even sporadic exercisers who sit for long periods need to increase their daily activity.

“The physical activity we do over a 24-hour period is important,” says Dr. Gerald F. Fletcher, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., and a spokesman for the American Heart Assn.

That means taking the stairs instead of the elevator, gardening, walking the dog . . .

“For couch potatoes, sitting on your duff is hazardous to your health,” Shah said. “The bottom line is keep moving.”