Live healthier, live longer
How risk factors affect lifespan
People who do not smoke at the age of 50, have normal blood pressure, no high cholesterol levels or diabetes and maintain a healthy body weight not only live longer, but are also spared cardiovascular disease for longer. This applies equally to women and men. But even those who make changes later on can benefit. This is what scientists at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) have discovered in a large-scale study - together with around 120 researchers worldwide.
The results were presented at the main congress of the American College of Cardiology and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The five classic risk factors of high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, being underweight or overweight or obese, and high cholesterol levels are responsible for around half of all cardiovascular diseases worldwide. We wanted to know how the absence or control of these factors affects lifespan," says Prof. Dr. Christina Magnussen, first author and deputy director of the UKE's Department of Cardiology.
The study shows that women who have none of these risk factors at the age of 50 develop cardiovascular disease on average 13.3 years later and die 14.5 years later than women with all five risk factors. Men without these risk factors live 10.6 years longer without cardiovascular disease and die on average 11.8 years later than men with the risk factors. The risk factors themselves have different significance; for example, women who do not smoke at the age of 50 live 5.5 years longer without cardiovascular disease, compared to 4.8 years for men.
Another important result of the study is that a change in behavior is also worthwhile in later life. "Of all five risk factors, controlling blood pressure is associated with the most additional years of healthy life," says Prof. Dr. Stefan Blankenberg, last author of the study and Medical Director of the University Heart and Vascular Center at the UKE. People who get their high blood pressure under control or stop smoking between the ages of 55 and 60 live longer and without cardiovascular disease than people who do not change their lifestyle.
For their study, the scientists analyzed data from more than two million people from 39 countries. This makes the study one of the most comprehensive investigations to date into the influence of risk factors on life expectancy.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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