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Heart Disease Risk - Activity Levels and the Risk of Early Death from Heart Disease

It's official.

You have the power to choose – get active now or be prepared to die at a young age.

This is scary stuff but the message above is real enough. Researchers have now confirmed what common sense and instinct always told us: that general physical activity and exercise is a critically important part of maintaining good health.

People who are physically active are less likely than their sedentary counterparts to develop chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other heart or cardiovascular disease. There is also a strong link between physical activity and death rates. In particular, physical activity is associated with a reduction in the risk of death due to heart disease. Those of us who exercise regularly – even in a modest way – die less often from heart disease than our sedentary friends.

Please try to get active – just stop and think about this for a minute: the amount of physical activity that you undertake is directly predictive of your risk of early death even if you have multiple heart risk factors or if you have preexisting heart disease. Risk factors for heart disease include having high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol and smoking. What this means is that it’s never too late to start a bit of regular exercise.

Many of us in the Western World have a high risk of heart disease because of our lifestyle habits and our body weight. A number of good research studies have shown that those with most risk factors to start with tend to be more sedentary than individuals at lower risk for heart disease. Could this be you - do you fit this description? If you do then for goodness sake do something about it .. Now!

A recent research study looked at almost one thousand American adults below retirement age. They followed these people for eight years and a huge amount of data was gathered about their health and their lifestyle. The study found that those with risk factors for heart disease were about thirty percent more likely to die than the rest of the population. They were also more likely to live a sedentary lifestyle.

Taking regular light or moderate exercise reduced the risk of early death by a dramatic ratio.

What's the message - we should all be active to a greater degree than at present. If you have high blood pressure, are overweight, have diabetes, a high cholesterol or are a smoker (or more than one of these risks) - then you need to increase your level of exercise ... and start now. Your life, quite literally, depends on it!

Dr Gordon Cameron MD is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has a special interest in the treatment of high blood pressure and in improving cardiac health and fitness (his own as well as yours!)

You can read more about heart disease and the cause of high blood pressure on Dr Cameron's website.

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