A modifiable 9 Factors account for 90% of total heart disease risk

From: Steve Harris sbharris_at_ROMAN9.netcom.com (sbharris_at_ix.netcom.com)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: 30 Aug 2004 14:24:59 -0700

Your Heart Disease Risk Is 90% In Your Hands

There's not much you can do about your age or gender. But take comfort
in the fact that age and gender don't doom you to a heart attack. Some
people never get heart disease (which is mostly from coronary
atherosclerosis) no matter how old they get. And age and gender *per
se* (as broken out from obestity, diabetes, hypertension, etc that go
along with age *if* you eat wrong), are the cause of less than 10% of
heart disease risk.

Recently, results from a very large epidemiologic trial (INTER-HEART),
which follows 27,000 people in 52 countries, has been reported at the
European Society of Cardiology meeting, which is going on in Munich,
today.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/30/health/webmd/main639484.shtml

The results are pretty much the same-old stuff, but they do emphase a
couple of interesting things. First, is that any genetic factors you
have that DON'T relate to easily measurable things like diabetes,
blood pressure, and your cholesterol picture, aren't all that
important, because they explain only 10% of heart disease. Remember,
that 10% includes the entire effect of age and gender, too. That means
it's possible go to your doctor and get a pretty complete risk
assessment right now. It's not perfect, but we can say it's 90%
accurate. That's pretty good. It's also pretty neat that no matter how
hold you get, you can still (probably) modify your life to avoid at
least 90% of your heart disease risk. If you start young, that is. We
don't yet know, of course, how late is "too late" for some of these
things. For example, 30 year-olds get the full ten years of extra life
if they quit smoking, but it's only 6 years for 50 year olds who quit,
and 3 years for 60 year olds, etc.

Second, this is the first time I've seen LACK of alcohol intake listed
as a bona fide cardiac risk factor. It made the top 9! Mormons and
Seventh-Day Adventists are really going to hate this. Sorry, but red
wine is here to stay. The French rule, here (now if we could only get
the French to stop smoking and start bathing).

FYI, the top 9 modifiable heart disease risk factors in INTER-HEART,
which account for 90% of total heart disease:

1) Smoking
2) Abnormal cholesterol (apo-B/Apo-A1 ratio, which is similar to
LDL/HDL raio)
3) Diabetes
4) Hypertension
5) Stress
6) Abdominal obesity (yow, that gut will get you)
7) Sedentary lifestyle
8) Eating too few fruits and vegetables
9) NO alcohol intake

Read that last one again. The other stuff is the same old grugery, but
dark chocholate and wine (in moderation) are still mighty fine.

SBH

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