Seniors with a Healthy Heart Have a Lower Risk of Dementia, Chronic Pain and Other Illnesses
Scientists have discovered that seniors with a healthy heart are less frail than the ones suffering from heart diseases. They also have a lower risk of developing dementia, disabling conditions or dying at an earlier age.
In old age, frailty was considered to be inevitable, but scientists now believe that seniors with a healthy heart are not that weak after all.
In the largest study of its kind, researchers at the University of Exeter found that seniors with normal blood pressure or cholesterol have a smaller chance to develop other diseases like dementia, chronic pain and so on. The study was recently published in The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences
How to Prevent Frailty – Having a Healthy Heart
Frailty does come with aging, but the study shows that a good heart lowers it with 85%.
Dr. Joao Delgado (University of Exeter Medical School) is the lead author of the study and stated:
“This study indicates that frailty and other age-related diseases could be prevented and significantly reduced in older adults. Getting our heart risk factors under control could lead to much healthier old ages.”
However, adults don’t have a good future, looking at the obesity epidemic, added Delgado:
“Unfortunately, the current obesity epidemic is moving the older population in the wrong direction. However our study underlines how even small reductions in risk are worthwhile.”
Researchers have analyzed GP medical records and data in the UK Biobank research study of over 421,000 people of ages between 60 – 69. The patients were followed for more than ten years in the study. Researchers also considered six factors to impact cardiovascular health. They took into consideration blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels, the weight, physical activity and whether the patients were smokers or not.
Dr. Janice Atkins is also a lead author, with the University of Exeter Medical School, and explained their findings:
“A quarter (26%) of participants from UK Biobank, made of predominantly healthy volunteers, had near perfect cardiovascular risk factors compared to only 2.4 per cent of the population via GP records. This highlights the huge potential for improvement in cardiovascular risk factors of the general population in the UK.”
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.
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