Re: 5 lifestyle changes that almost reduce you risk of heart disease almost 90 %

Don Kirkman wrote:
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Don Kirkman wrote in article
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It seems to me I heard somewhere that bigvince wrote in article
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Men who adopt five key lifestyle changes are 87% less likely to
develop coronary heart disease than men who adopt none of the changes
Environmental Nutrition, Sept, 2006
Men who adopt five key lifestyle changes are 87% less likely to
develop coronary heart disease than men who adopt none of the changes.
That's what Harvard researchers found who followed almost 43,000 men
as part of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They found five
changes were key to a lower risk of heart disease: 1) not smoking, 2)
maintaining a healthy weight--body mass index of less than 25, 3)
exercising daily for at least 30 minutes, 4) drinking alcohol in
moderation--1/2 drink to two drinks a day, 5) eating healthfully, such
as reducing saturated and trans fats. Even men on blood pressure or
cholesterol medication experienced 57% less risk by adopting these
changes."

Without the side effects of most drugs

So if the subjects began with a risk of 100 cases in 1,000 (10.0% if I
remember my grade-school arithmetic) those following these five steps
would reduce their overall risk to 8.7% or 87 cases per 1,000, right?

I should have hunted up my high school math books before I hit send,

Or a calculator. ;-)

but
the principle remains: if the initial risk is 10% or 100 cases per
1,000, the risk now becomes 1.3% or 13 cases per 1,000, a significant
drop but not quite eliminating heart risk.

Decreasing heart disease risk by 87% is very significant. Plus, doing these things would improve health overall and delay the onset on symptoms in most people. Plus, it would help keep people active longer (by active, I mean by many years and the period of poor health before the dirt nap would decline, so that people live a long life and, when the time comes, it really comes).

However, a little further research show that Environmental Nutrition is not a peer-reveiwed journal, but rather, a newsletter.

The unanswered questions include whether the five magic changes
contribute equally to the results, or whether or not one or some are
primary factors, and whether changes in various combinations contribute
more or less than would be expected. IOW, is it all combinations or
none, or are subjects making two or four changes still reaping some of
the benefits.

In my case, I would have to lose weight (working on it), get more exercise (working on it) and drink more!

However, my risk would not go down 87%, because I was never stupid enough to smoke.

I don't think the article implied that doing only one of these things would not be helpful. I would be surprised if the article did not say doing some of these things is better than doing none of them.

The practical problem, ISTM, is that considering how difficult it is to
get a patient to make one life style change, what are the realistic
chances he/she will make all five recommended changes.

Particularly if he is an alcoholic who is on the wagon. In that case, you don't get 0.5 to 2 drinks per day: It's 0 or a lot more than 2.

I do want to say I think doing the things mentioned are really good things to do and will improve both the quantity and quality of life.

However, despite this, I trust neither the numbers nor the source.

Jeff
.

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