Women can reduce sudden cardiac death with basic lifestyle practices

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Dr. Jonathan

It doesn’t hurt to have a reminder of the power of lifestyle factors to reduce chronic disease such as this study just published in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) in which the authors correlated several of them to the risk of sudden cardiac death. As they note, sudden death is often the first sign of heart disease:

“Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for more than half of all cardiac deaths; the majority of SCD events occur as the first manifestation of heart disease, especially among women. Primary preventive strategies are needed to reduce SCD incidence.”

Sudden cardiac death means dying within an hour of the onset of symptoms. For their purpose they defined a “healthy lifestyle” as not smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, exercising for 30 minutes per day or longer, and to exceed 40% of the alternate Mediterranean diet score (defined as a high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole versus refined grains, fish and moderate alcohol. What did the data show?

“All 4 low-risk lifestyle factors were significantly and independently associated with a lower risk of SCD. The absolute risks of SCD were 22 cases/100 000 person-years among women with 0 low-risk factors, 17 cases/100 000 person-years with 1 low-risk factor, 18 cases/100 000 person-years with 2 low-risk factors, 13 cases/100 000 person-years with 3 low-risk factors, and 16 cases/100 000 person-years with 4 low-risk factors. Compared with women with 0 low-risk factors, the multivariable relative risk of SCD was 0.54 for women with 1 low-risk factor, 0.41 for 2 low-risk factors, 0.33 for 3 low-risk factors, and 0.08 for 4 low-risk factors. The proportion of SCD attributable to smoking, inactivity, overweight, and poor diet was 81%. Among women without clinically diagnosed coronary heart disease, the percentage of population attributable risk was 79%.”

Considering that the benefits of diet and exercise can be further enhanced by customization according to functional metabolic-genomic assessment needs and more effective time-saving interval training respectively, it is likely that even these significant percentages can be further improved. The authors conclude:

“Adherence to a low-risk lifestyle is associated with a low risk of SCD.”

Aging and disease—lifestyle choices drive changes in your genes

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Dr. Jonathan

This paper published in the journal Allergy & Immunology discusses the molecular basis of a factor that is crucial for the decisions we make in daily life. This is because our choices and environment change our gene expression as we age, which plays a key role in how we become more prone to autoimmune, inflammatory and malignant disorders as the years go by. In the background there develops a persistent chronic low-grade inflammation. The authors state, “The decline in immunocompetence with age is accompanied by the increase in the incidence of autoimmune diseases. Aging of the immune system… is characterized by…the presence of low-grade chronic inflammation. There is growing evidence that epigenetics, the study of inherited changes in gene expression that are not encoded by the DNA sequence itself, changes with aging. Interestingly, emerging evidence suggests a key role for epigenetics in human pathologies, including inflammatory and neoplastic disorders.” [neoplastic = abnormal growths] They continue to describe the role of key molecular processes such as DNA methylation that we evaluate and treat in our functional medicine approach to chronic disease and aging.

Major risk factors for type 2 diabetes all linked by lifestyle-induced chronic inflammation

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Dr. Jonathan

This important paper recently published in the journal Diabetologia extensively highlights the central role of lifestyle-induced chronic inflammation in the development of type 2 diabetes. The authors share data revealing that people at risk for type 2 diabetes are those for whom the inflammatory responses to those factors are more pronounced and prolonged. They state: “Chronic low-grade inflammation will eventually lead to overt diabetes if counter-regulatory circuits to inflammation and metabolic stress are compromised because of a genetic and/or epigenetic predisposition. Hence, it is not the lifestyle change per se but a deficient counter-regulatory response in predisposed individuals which is crucial to disease pathogenesis.” Everywhere you turn you will see the importance of evaluating and treating tendencies to chronic inflammation—which may be symptomatic or silent.