If you are turning 50 and you think it’s too late to change your ways – recent research says differently, though they warn of classic health traps that can lead you to an early grave.
A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that five common risk factors for heart disease can reduce your life expectancy for more than a decade.
These risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, diabetes and smoking.
“These five factors account for approximately 50% of the global burden of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Christina Magnussen, Deputy Director of the Department of Cardiology at the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Medical Center in Germany.
“Our central question was how many extra years of life are possible if these factors are missing or modified in middle age.”
Their results, based on data from over 2 million people in 39 countries, are annoying – men with all five risk factors had their abbreviated lives for nearly 12 years, and women with 14.5 years, compared to those.
Without the five risk factors, men had a 68% chance of dying before the age of 90 – which is not exactly low – but with all five, the risk shot up to 94%. For women, the jump was from 53% to 88%.
But there is good news: researchers found that managing all five could take an extra five years in your longevity, even if you do not change your ways by the mid -1950s.
In accordance with previous research, smoking and high blood pressure were found to be the worst offenders when it comes to heart disease.
The removal of tobacco around the age of 55 added 2.1 years of life for women and 2.4 years for men.
Reducing high blood pressure at the same age delayed heart problems by 2.4 years for women and 1.2 years for men.
“Our findings require target interference that address specific risk factors, especially during the critical middle -aged decade. Hypertension and smoking should be the main focus of primary prevention,” Magnussen said.
Throw them two? You are on your way to additional occasions. Treats everyone? You are playing the long game.
“The study shows that even around the age of 50, individuals can make substantial changes in their lifestyle or prevention strategies on a personal level to significantly affect their longevity,” said Holger Thiele, director of the Leipzig Center in Germany.
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