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Heart-healthy lifestyle cut cancer risk by half

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Adherence to the American Heart Association's seven ideal health metrics reduced risk for CVD and also helped prevent cancer, according to new data published in Circulation.

The Life’s Simple 7 goals are part of the AHA’s My Life Check campaign. The seven heart-healthy factors include:

• Being physically active.
• Keeping a healthy weight.
• Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.
• Keeping BP low.
• Eating a healthy diet.
• Regulating blood glucose levels.
• No smoking.

In the study, participants who adhered to six or seven of the goals reduced their risk for cancer by 51%, compared with participants who met none of the goals. Participants who met four goals had a 33% reduced risk for cancer and participants who met one or two goals had a 21% reduced risk. When smoking was removed from the health metrics, participants who met five or six of the remaining goals had a 25% lower risk for cancer, compared with those who met no goals (P=.03).

 

Laura J. Rasmussen-Torvik

Researchers studied 13,253 participants from the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, which was launched in four US communities in 1987. Home interviews and medical examinations were conducted at the start of the study. During follow-up, the researchers reviewed cancer registries and hospital records and determined that 2,880 participants developed cancer, primarily lung, colon/rectum, prostate and breast, according to a press release.

"We believe that the most important overall message from this study is that adherence to the seven ideal (CVD) health metrics as proposed by the AHA is associated not only with lower CVD incidence and total mortality but also with lower cancer incidences," Laura J. Rasmussen-Torvik, MD, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinstein School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote in the study.

For more information:

Rasmussen-Torvik LJ. Circulation. 2013;doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.001183.

Disclosure:Rasmussen-Torvik reports no relevant financial disclosures.