While numerous scientific studies have shown that sugar, salt, tobacco, alcoholexcess fat, and sedentary lifestyle are the enemies of the heart and early mortality risk factors, these new findings presented at the European Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona and published in the review Canadian Journal of Cardiology reveal the effectiveness of the control of all these risk factors on thelife expectancy.
Research teams from Toulouse, Lille and Strasbourg (France) attached since 1985 to the MONICA project, which monitors cardio-neurovascular diseases in France carried out a study with 1046 people followed for 18 years, between 1995 and 2013. All participants answered extremely precise quantitative and qualitative nutritional questionnaires but in place by a dietician. They also underwent measurements (weight, height, etc.) and a blood sample. At the end of the study, 18 years later, the researchers looked at the number of deaths (186) and analyzed the causes of death.
Modifiable risk factors
The conclusions of the study reveal that individuals who consume excess sugar, saturated fats, alcohol, who smoke and who are not very inclined to physical activity show a high risk of cardiovascular illnesses and are twice as likely to die from a Cancer.
“It appears that the subjects least adhering to preventive measures have three times the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and twice the risk of dying, most often from cancer. These are huge numbers because they are risk factors that can be corrected: quitting smoking, consuming less alcohol, less sugargive preference to polyunsaturated fats (olive, flaxseed, rapeseed oils), fibersthe fruits, etc The study also reveals that age, male sex, place of residence (north rather than south) and a low level of education are associated with an increase in mortality.
Alarming figures
“We extrapolated our results to the French population. If people with inappropriate preventive behavior were to change their way of life for the better, over the same period of 18 years, we would avoid 90,702 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 419,020 deaths from all causes, including cancer, since certain risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity and obesity are common to both diseases. The message is to promote prevention, to work further upstream of the disease to limit its severity,” concludes Jean Ferrières.
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