Scientists from Boston University found that people taking part in the historic Framingham Heart Study are living longer and with less risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying from coronary heart disease.
The research is published in Circulation and was conducted by Dr. Vasan Ramachandran et al.
Scientists have known for decades about the risks posed by plaque buildup in the arteries.
Coronary heart disease, for example, caused 360,900 deaths in the U.S. in 2019, according to statistics from the American Heart Association.
In the study, the team wanted to learn more about how the risk has changed over the years.
They focused on “remaining lifetime risk,” or the probability that a person, at any given age, will experience cardiovascular disease during their remaining years.
They used data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study that started in 1948 and now includes participants from multiple generations.
The team calculated participants’ remaining lifetime risk from age 45 for having a heart attack or stroke or dying from coronary heart disease during three epochs: 1960-1979, 1980-1999 and 2000-2018.
Life expectancy rose by 10.1 years for men and 11.9 years for women across the three time periods.
The remaining lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease fell between 1960-1979 and 2000-2018 – from 36.3% to 26.5% in women, and from 52.5% to 30.1% in men.
The team also found men and women in the 21st century were having their first cardiovascular disease events later in life.
From 2000-2018, the average age of a first cardiovascular event was 8.1 years later for men and 10.3 years later for woman compared with 1960-1979.
The team says the findings show a very strong message of prevention and hope.
The study tells us that better health care access, preventive measures, smoking cessation and better treatment of high blood pressure and cholesterol may be helpful in lowering the lifetime probability of developing a heart attack or a stroke.
With the pandemic easing up, people who haven’t seen a doctor in a while should schedule an exam and have their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checked.
Sign up for our newsletter for more information about this topic.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies about a common cause of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and chronic itch linked to heart disease, sleep loss.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies that drinking coffee this way can help prevent stroke, heart disease, and results showing vitamin K may help cut heart disease risk by a third.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
