Doctors Health Press, a division of Lombardi Publishing Corporation and publisher of various natural health newsletters, books, and reports, including the popular online Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin, is reporting on a new study finding that only four percent of patients, after suffering a heart attack or stroke, actually make the necessary lifestyle changes to better their health—including smoking cessation, a healthy diet, and a regular exercise regimen.
As Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin (http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/heart-health-articles/why-heart-and-stroke-patients-arent-out-of-the-woods-yet) notes, most people would think that after suffering from a heart attack or stroke, someone would be inclined to exercise or start following a healthy diet. But according to a recent study, that’s not the case.
As the article “Why Heart and Stroke Patients Aren’t Out of the Woods Yet” reports, the study, conducted at McMaster University, looked at the lifestyle habits of a group of patients previously treated for heart disease and strokes. The researchers wanted to see if people who had been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or stroke would subsequently stop smoking, eat a healthy diet, and adopt a routine of regular physical activity. The study assessed 153,996 adults between the ages of 35 and 70 for six years.
The Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin article states that when the data were finally analyzed by the researchers, they had 7,519 individuals from the original sample who had been diagnosed with heart disease or had experienced a previous stroke event. It was generally expected that these people at risk of heart disease or stroke would be willing to adopt a healthy diet or, at the very least, start exercising. But that’s not what the researchers found; in fact, only 52% of the current smokers had been able to quit smoking following a major heart or stroke event. The results were worse for exercise levels: only 35% reported having higher levels of physical activity, and only 39% reported eating a healthy diet!
According to the article, these statistics are rather interesting, because they are representative of people who were previously diagnosed with very serious, life-threatening disorders, yet who weren’t able to make healthy lifestyle changes. After further analysis of this study, Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin noted that among the three healthy behaviors that were measured in this study (smoking cessation, healthy diet, and an exercise regimen), only four percent of participants had adopted all of them. while 14% had adopted none of them. Another interesting fact that emerged was that men were less likely to adopt healthy lifestyle habits following a serious diagnosis than women.
The Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin article concludes by noting that with so few people able to change their respective behaviors after a serious diagnosis, it is important to explore the reasons why this is and how the public can deal with such an important health issue.
(SOURCES: Teo, K., et al., “Prevalence of a Healthy Lifestyle Among Individuals With
Cardiovascular Disease in High-, Middle- and Low-Income Countries: The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) Study,” JAMA 2013; 309(15):1613-1621; Carter, A., “Heart and stroke patients often return to unhealthy lifestyles,” CBC News web site, April 17, 2013, last accessed April 23, 2013.)
- Courtesy of PRWeb