Adopting Healthy Habits can Help Adults Lower Heart Disease Risk

Adults can lower heart disease risk by adopting healthy habits, a new study states.

Eating junk food, smoking and being a couch potato are some of the factors that up heart disease risk in old age. A new study, conducted by researchers at the Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, finds that adults in their 30s or 40s can slow down and even reverse progression of coronary artery diseases.

"It's not too late," said Bonnie Spring, lead investigator of the study and a professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "You're not doomed if you've hit young adulthood and acquired some bad habits. You can still make a change and it will have a benefit for your heart."

The study also found that picking up unhealthy habits during early adulthood can increase heart problems in old age.

For the study, researchers used data from 5,000 participants who were part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA). The participants' heart health was assessed at baseline - when they were about 18 to 30 years old - and 20 years later. Researchers looked at the link between healthy living and coronary artery calcification and thickening.

Healthy lifestyle in the study considered the following factors: not being overweight, non-smoker, being physically active, having low alcohol intake and a healthy diet. At the start of the study, around 10 percent of participants reported all five healthy behaviors. After 20 years, at least 25 percent of the CARDIA participants had adopted one habit that was good for their physical health.

Researchers found that each additional healthy habit was associated with reduction in risk of detectable coronary artery calcification and lower intima-media thickness, which are two major markers that predict future heart disease risk.

"This finding is important because it helps to debunk two myths held by some health care professionals," Spring said in a news release. "The first is that it's nearly impossible to change patients' behaviors. Yet, we found that 25 percent of adults made healthy lifestyle changes on their own. The second myth is that the damage has already been done - adulthood is too late for healthy lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of developing coronary artery disease. Clearly, that's incorrect. Adulthood is not too late for healthy behavior changes to help the heart."

In the study, about 40 percent of people picked up unhealthy lifestyle habits, which increased their risk of developing a heart disease.

The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institutes of Health, and is published in the journal Circulation.