Following a healthy lifestyle can have a major impact in cutting a woman’s risk of heart disease, new findings suggest.
Stephanie Chiuve of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA, and her team analysed figures from women in the long-term Nurses’ Health Study. The women gave lifestyle information via questionnaire every two years for 26 years.
In the study, a "low-risk lifestyle" involved: not smoking, having a body mass index of less than 25 (i.e. not overweight), exercising 30 minutes per day or more, and a Mediterranean-style diet with a high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains and fish, and moderate alcohol.
Of the 81,722 women, 321 experienced sudden cardiac death, that is, death within one hour after symptom onset without evidence of circulatory collapse.
Analysis showed that all four lifestyle factors were "significantly and independently" associated with a reduced risk. Those who had a low risk for all four factors were at a 92 per cent lower risk of sudden cardiac death, versus women with high risk on all four factors. The optimum body mass index range was 21 to 24.9.
Details are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The authors calculate that 81 per cent of these cases of sudden cardiac death may have been prevented if all women adhered to a low risk lifestyle.
They write: "Sudden cardiac death accounts for more than half of all cardiac deaths. The primary prevention of sudden cardiac death remains a major public health challenge because most sudden cardiac death occurs among individuals not identified as high risk.
"Adherence to an overall healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of sudden cardiac death and may be an effective strategy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death."
Chiuve, S. E. et al. Adherence to a Low-Risk, Healthy Lifestyle and Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death Among Women. The Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 306, July 6, 2011, pp. 62-69.
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