Albertans are taking better care of their heart health (Canada)

Albertans are showing remarkable improvements in heart health thanks to a combination of better eating, increased fitness and much-improved medical treatments. According to new data collected from across the province from 2003 and 2010, the number of coronary artery bypass surgeries in the province fell from 84 per 100,000 people in 2003, to 42 in 2010 - a 50 per cent decline in per capita counts. As well, the number of cardiac catheterizations, in which a catheter is inserted into an artery or chamber of the heart to assess damage, also decreased from 480 per 100,000 in 2003 to 430 in 2010. Dr. Merrill Knudtson, a professor of medicine at the University of Calgary's Libin Cardiovascular Institute, says it's impressive the trend toward medical procedures has been on the decline for a number of years. "Albertans are doing better in terms of diet and exercise and they are smoking less, and we have the secondary evidence to suggest that," he said. Dr. Sean McMurtry, lead author of the research study and a cardiologist at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton, explained that while the raw number of procedures haven't changed significantly, simply because of Alberta's population boom over the last decade, the per capita decline is meaningful

Lifetime of healthy choices pays off later (USA)

Young adults who don't drink heavily, avoid tobacco, eat healthy, exercise and stay lean lower their risk of heart failure in middle-age, U.S. researchers say. First author Kiang Liu, a professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said the majority of people who maintained a healthy lifestyle in their 20s remain in the low-risk category in their middle-age years. The study published in the journal Circulation found when the participants' average age was 24, nearly 44 percent had a low cardiovascular disease risk profile, but 20 years later, just 24.5 percent fell into that category. In addition, 60 percent of those who maintained all five healthy lifestyles reached middle age with a low cardiovascular risk profile, compared with fewer than 5 percent who followed none of the healthy lifestyles. "The problem is few adults can maintain ideal cardiovascular health factors as they age," Liu said in a statement. "Many middle-age adults develop unhealthy diets, gain weight and aren't as physically active. Such lifestyles, of course, lead to high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and elevated cardiovascular risk."