Health Tips

Heart Disease Risk Factor:-
Middle-aged men who smoke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol can be expected to live 10 to 15 years less than men who do not have these risk factors for heart disease. The conclusion is the conclusion of the research based on data collected over 40 years from 19,000 male civil servants as part of the study and Whitehall. The results are published online today in the British Medical Journal.

Lead author, Dr Robert Clarke, Clinical Trial Service Unit, which is funded in part by the Medical Research Council at the University of Oxford, the importance of the results of the study:

«We have shown that men in the age of 50 who smoke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels can be expected to survive to 74 years of age, while those who have any of these risk factors can be expected to live up to 83 «.

The men recruited for the Whitehall study between 1967 and 1970 to consider the implications of smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the blood, and this was at the height of the heart disease epidemic in the United Kingdom. Participants between 40 and 69 years old when he joined the study.

Participants completed the questionnaire in the previous entry, which covered medical history, smoking habits and degree of employment and marital status. The initial physical examination recorded height, weight, blood pressure, lung function and blood cholesterol and glucose levels. With funding from the British Heart Foundation, the records of 18,863 men and tracked 7,044 participants alive and was considered in 1997, 28 years after initial screening.

Upon entry into the study, 42% of men current smokers, and 39% of high blood pressure and 51% had high cholesterol. In the review, about two-thirds of the cessation of smoking and the differences in the levels of blood pressure and cholesterol had also fallen by two thirds during this period.

Clark concluded: «The results give people another way to look at risk factors for heart disease which can be understood more easily. If you stop smoking or take the necessary measures to address the high blood pressure or body weight, and will translate into increased life expectancy «.

«It also provides support for the existing public health policies. Ban on smoking in public places, and efforts to reduce saturated fat and salt, combined with medications for those at risk of heart disease and blood vessels, when taken together will lead to a significant improvement in the average life expectancy of the population in all parts ».

Original research paper: 'the average life expectancy for cardiovascular risk factors: 38 years of follow-up of 19,000 men in the study and Whitehall' Robert Clark and his colleagues are scheduled to be published on the Internet in Britain