Undetected Cardiovascular Disease Accelerates Aging
As we age, we expect to slow down both mentally and physically. But that doesn’t happen to everyone.
The Cardiovascular Health Study has found that undetected heart disease could be one of the major reasons some people experience the classic symptoms of aging sooner - exhaustion, mental confusion, weakness, difficulty walking, etc.
When Dr. [Anne] Newman and her colleagues examined participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study they saw evidence that their hunch seemed right. Participants with obvious disease who had congestive heart failure or a heart attack or stroke, for example — were likely to be frail. But those with no symptoms but partly blocked blood vessels seen on scans and other tests were nearly three times as likely to be frail as healthier people. And they became disabled — unable to care for themselves — about five years earlier than people without cardiovascular disease at the start of the study.
The following more detailed findings are even more sobering:
- Being unable to walk a quarter mile within five minutes portended troubles.
- For each minute beyond five, the risk of dying in the next four years increased by a third, the risk of having a heart attack increased by 20 percent, and the risk of having a disability increased by half.
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Those who took more than six minutes for the quarter-mile walk had the same risk of dying or having a heart attack as those who could not walk the distance at all, and the effect was independent of age.
It doesn’t take anything fancy to stay as hearty and healthy as you can - maintain a positive attitude, exercise, don’t smoke, and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure. Easier said than done, I know. But you can do it!!
Also don’t miss this New York Times Video: Frail or Hearty? Witold Bialokur, 71 year old runner, is featured and he’s an inspiration.
NY Times, October 5, 2006
Photo credit: Bialy-Fox
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