36 percent risk reduction attributed to not smoking.“I believe these also apply to women and Americans,” said Dr. The study, published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, noted that men could reduce their heart attack risk by 80 percent if they made five lifestyle changes. She cites a study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, which observed 20,721 healthy Swedish men, ages 45 to 79, for 11 years. Sweitzer, MD, PhD, director of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center and professor of medicine, UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson. So all those things your dad is doing-the workouts, the new interest in good food, figuring out how to reduce stress? Join him.If you could do five things to reduce your heart-attack risk by 80 percent, would you take a step to start on this path? (It still sells out most days.)īeing young for your first heart attack doesn’t mean you’ll recover just fine: Your chances of a second one (and of stroke or death) are as bad as older guys’. He lost weight, started playing basketball again, and moved to a job he finds to be lower stress-owning his own restaurant, BigCountry’s BBQ in Milwaukee, which uses a sauce made without salt or sugar. He’s now on the heart-transplant list, wearing an implanted pump called HeartMate 3, because his own diseased organ is permanently compromised. Tyrone Morris got a break, even though it took him three days to call a clinic. You can't control your age, your family history, or your ethnic group (heart attack risk tends to be higher among people who are African-American, Mexican-American, Native American, native Hawaiian, and Indian-American), so if yours put you at high risk, you should pay extra attention to factors you can control. ![]() Risk factors you should be paying attention to that you can control: High blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess weight, diabetes, recreational drug use, smoking, physical inactivity, high levels of stress, heavy alcohol use, unhealthy diet. If your doctor isn’t paying attention, you should be if your risk factors and labs show you’re a candidate for heart trouble, make sure to talk about what changes you might need. Blankstein, they may be less likely to prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins or clot-preventing aspirin therapy to younger men. “Based on what we’re seeing, we’re moving in the wrong direction.”Įven doctors can be in age-related denial. “It used to be incredibly rare to see anyone under age 40 come in with a heart attack-and some of these people are now in their 20s and early 30s,” says Ron Blankstein, M.D., a preventive cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. And he’s one of many guys who never thought in a million years they’d have a heart attack in their 30s. Three days after the stickup, he finally called a clinic and discovered he had full-blown heart disease. “I couldn’t breathe, and I had pain all through my chest.” Though he was a former college basketball player and pro hopeful, his weight had crept up from 190 to 320 since he’d been in his 20s, and he’d been ignoring some other issues for months-shortness of breath, chest pressure, unexplained weight gain, trouble getting down the court during pickup basketball games. “My heart was pounding so fast,” he says. “Time to give me all the money in this store or I’ll kill you.” Morris handed over the money, but the danger didn’t stop. ![]() “You know what time it is,” the assailant said. Eight years ago, when Tyrone Morris was about to close the retail store he managed in Milwaukee, he came to the end of an aisle and found a 9mm pistol pointed at his right temple.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |