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A Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Has Positive Impacts at Any Age

Even in your 50s or 60s, you benefit by adopting any or all of these critical behaviors: eating right, exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking

Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle makes a difference, even if the change does not come until middle age, say researchers in the American Journal of Medicine. In fact, people who eat right and exercise more can substantially reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and death even if they are in their 50s or 60s.

Consuming at least five fruits and vegetables daily, exercising at least 2.5 hours per week, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking can lessen your chances of heart trouble by 35 percent – and your risk of dying by 40 percent – compared to people with less healthy lifestyles.

“The message of this study is loud and clear,” says Matthew V. DeCaro, MD, Director of the Coronary Care Unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor of Cardiology at Jefferson Medical College. “No matter your age, making some fundamental lifestyle changes does improve your heart health. The challenge is adopting these changes not just for a few weeks or months, but for life.”

Four healthy behaviors: That’s the ticket
The study’s researchers wanted to test whether or not reaching middle age makes it too late to adopt healthy habits and improve your health.

“The study’s authors called this the ‘turning-back-the-clock study,’” says Dr. DeCaro. “It demonstrates that it’s almost never too late to change and that the benefits of a healthy lifestyle don’t apply only to folks who have been doing these things all along.

“If you can make some changes even in your 50s and 60s, you’ll have a healthier, longer life because of those changes,” he notes.

Many people in middle age don’t make lifestyle changes because they think the damage is already done. Yet, in this study, the chances of dying or having a heart attack were reduced by a third after just four years of living a healthy lifestyle.

Researchers collected data on 15,792 men and women ages 45 to 64 who took part in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. They found that during four years of follow-up, the benefit of switching to a healthy lifestyle after age 45 became apparent. In addition, the benefit happened even with modest changes in health habits.

Moreover, a healthy lifestyle was beneficial when compared with people with three or fewer healthy habits – not just compared to people with no healthy habits or only one of the healthy habits.

While people with only three healthy habits had lower mortality, they did not reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease.

Unfortunately, only 8.5 percent of people in the study practiced these four healthy behaviors, and only 8.4 percent adopted these lifestyle changes after age 45. Men, African Americans, those without a college education, those with lower income or those with a history of high blood pressure or diabetes were all less likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle past age 45.

Starting at any age still works

Matthew V. DeCaro, MD

This study strongly suggests that it may never be too late to start over. And Dr. DeCaro agrees: “Healthy living is truly the best medicine. Of course, it can be very difficult to modify longstanding habits, but I hope this study will inspire people to take the first step – and stick with it. Anytime is a good time to start.”

Always consult your physician for more information. Make an appointment with a Jefferson physician online or by calling 1-800-JEFF-NOW.