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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Healthy Diet, Exemplary Lifestyle Decrease Risk of
Heart Attack in Women
Nothing to it - moderate alcohol, physically active,
healthy weight and no smoking
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 These
dietary behaviors together with a healthy lifestyle and body
weight may prevent most heart attacks, author says. |
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Oct. 23, 2007 - Women who eat a healthy diet, drink
moderate amounts of alcohol, are physically active, maintain a healthy
weight and do not smoke have a significantly reduced risk of heart
attack, according to a less than surprising report in the October 22
issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives
journals.
“Coronary heart disease is the most important cause
of death and disability in women,” the authors note in the article.
“Despite a lower incidence in women, coronary heart disease–related
mortality and the percentage of sudden deaths from coronary heart
disease without previous symptoms is higher and the trend of decline in
incidence is slower than in men.”
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Health & Medicine |
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Dietary patters were identified in 24,444
postmenopausal women by analyzing food frequency questionnaires, on
which the women supplied information about how often they ate 96 common
foods.
“We derived four major dietary patterns: ‘healthy’
(vegetables, fruits and legumes), ‘Western/Swedish’ (red meat, processed
meat, poultry, rice, pasta, eggs, fried potatoes and fish), ‘alcohol’
(wine, liquor, beer and some snacks) and ‘sweets’ (sweet baked goods,
candy, chocolate, jam and ice cream),” write the authors.
The study was by Agneta Akesson, Ph.D., M.P.H., of
the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and colleagues.
Participants also answered questions about
education, family history, health status, use of medications, body
measurements and physical activity. When they enrolled in the study in
1997, none of the women had heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
Over an average of 6.2 years of follow-up, 308
women had a new myocardial infarction (heart attack); 51 of these cases
were fatal.
Two diet types - “healthy” and “alcohol” - were
associated with a reduced risk for heart attack.
“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,” the authors
write.
“This combination of healthy behaviors, present in
5 percent, may prevent 77 percent of myocardial infarctions in the study
population.”
Several components of fruits, vegetables and whole
grains - including fiber, antioxidant vitamins and minerals - have been
associated with a reduced risk for coronary heart disease, the
researchers note. In addition, previous studies have found beneficial
effects of small amounts of alcohol in preventing the buildup of plaque
in the arteries, which could help prevent heart attacks.
“Our study findings indicate that healthy dietary
behaviors are present in the population,” the authors conclude. “These
dietary behaviors together with a healthy lifestyle and body weight may
prevent most myocardial infarction events
Editor's Note: This study was supported by research
grants from the Center for Health Care Sciences, Karolinska Institutet;
the Swedish Research Council/Medicine and Longitudinal Studies; and the
Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.
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