Protecting Your Early Cardiovascular Health Reduces The Risk Of Stroke

Preserving good cardiovascular health during young adulthood is one of the best ways to reduce risks of premature heart attack or stroke, as per a study published in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for the increasing number of premature deaths in many countries including the U.S. Despite plenty of information available on maintaining good heart health during and after midlife to reduce the risks of heart attack and stroke, similar data during young adulthood is limited.

What is a Heart Attack | How to Prevent Heart Attacks - Myocardial Infarction Smoking
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Simple guidelines to avoid heart attack are listed.

‘Preserving good cardiovascular health during young adulthood is one of the best ways to reduce risks of premature heart attack or stroke, as revealed by cardiovascular health (CVH) score. Thus timely and consistent monitoring of heart health among young adults is important to prevent premature death from cardiovascular events.’

"Most people lose ideal cardiovascular health before they reach midlife, yet few young people have immediate health concerns and many do not usually seek medical care until approaching midlife. We need strategies to help preserve or restore heart health in this population because we know poor heart health in young adults is linked to premature cardiovascular disease," says the study's senior author Hyeon Chang Kim, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the department of preventive medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea.

Impact of Cardiovascular Health in Young Adulthood

The study team utilized the Korean National Health Insurance Services, a nationwide health insurer database to analyze the information collected from more than 3.5 million adults (from Korean ancestry) who completed routine health exams in 2003 and 2004.

Lifestyle Paths to Prevent Heart Disease
Heart disease can be of many types depending upon whether they involve the heart muscles or artery walls or heart beats. Bad lifestyle choices contribute to heart disease.

A follow-up health examination between 2005 and 2008 was conducted on a subgroup of approximately 2.9 million participants (65.5% of the study participants were male) among the ages 20 to 39 at the time of the first exam. The total number of first hospitalizations or death from a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure by December 31, 2019, was evaluated to define their outcomes.

Categorizations of the participants were done according to ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) scores based on the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7® metrics : well-maintained blood pressure, low total cholesterol, acceptable blood sugar levels, an active lifestyle, healthy weight and not smoking.

Tips to Prevent Heart Attacks
Heart Attack occurs when the flow of oxygenated blood to heart muscles is hindered or stopped due to built-up of plaques in coronary arteries. Heart Attack is the No.1 killer among Indians.

Since the dietary information was not collected from participants in this database, the final measure of Life's Simple 7: healthy nutrition and diet, was not included in this analysis, and the metric was modified accordingly.

It was found that the rates of premature (younger than 55) cardiovascular events were highest among patients with a CVH score of zero. A higher CVH score by one point led to reduced risks for heart attack by 42%, heart failure by 30%, cardiovascular death by 25%, and stroke by 24%.

Top 8 Tips for Heart-Healthy Eating
Eating right goes a long way in preventing heart ailments. The key is to have low-fat, low sodium, high fiber foods and foods that are rich in omega-3 content.

Also, improvement in the CVH score over time reduced the risk of hospitalizations or death from a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure. The study thereby highlights the fact that timely and consistent monitoring of heart health among young adults is important to prevent premature onset of heart disease and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.

Since the study information was based on routine health screening data with no data on participants' eating patterns, these add to the limitations of the study.

Source-Medindia