Prevent Heart Failure with Lifestyle Changes
The way you choose to live, impacts your risk for disease. A new study published in the September issue of Circulation: Heart Failure has found that not smoking, losing weight, being active, and eating a diet high in vegetables may decrease your risk for heart failure.
Heart failure is the condition where the heart becomes weakened and does not pump blood and oxygen throughout your system effectively.
Researchers followed over 18,000 men and close to 20,000 women in Finland. Participants ranged in age from 25 to 74 years-old and were followed for about 14 years. During this 14 year time period, 445 women and 638 men developed heart failure.
Smoking and Excess Weight Increase Heart Failure Risk
Researchers concluded that men who smoked were at an 86 percent increased risk of heart failure compared to non-smokers. For women the risk increased 109 percent for smokers.
