Study: Heart Attack May Be Closer Than You Think

Forget what your doctor told you about your risk of heart attack. Researchers at Northwestern University have published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine asserting that the common medical practice of focusing on the next ten years of a patient’s life has been giving people a false sense of security about their chances of having a heart attack or stroke. A Northwestern news release reports that when the scientists measured risk factors for cardiovascular disease — blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking status and diabetes status– of more that 250,000 people at ages 45, 55, 65 and 75 years, they found that 45-year-old men men who have all risk factors at optimal levels have a 1.4 percent risk of having a heart attack or stroke or other form of death from heart disease, while having two or more risk factors hike the risk to 49.5 percent. For women of the same age and same optimal risk factors, the chance of having a heart attack or stroke in their lifetimes is 4.1 percent, while having two or more risk factors boost it to 30.7 percent.  The release quotes Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair and associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the principal investigator warning that “With even just one risk factor, the likelihood is very large that someone will develop a major cardiovascular event that will kill them or substantially diminish their quality of life or health.”  What does “optimal” mean? The risk-factor profile was considered optimal when a participant had a total cholesterol level of less than 180 milligrams per deciliter and untreated blood pressure of less than 120 over less than 80, was a nonsmoker and did not have diabetes. Read more from Northwestern University.