April 2012
A new study, published in the journal Circulation, finds that young adults who practice healthy habits have a lowered risk of developing heart disease later in life. The researchers followed 2,336 people beginning in 1985. The average age of the participants at the beginning of the study was 24 and researchers monitored whether or not they kept a healthy weight and diet, didn’t smoke or drink excessively, and exercised regularly. Among the participants who maintained healthy habits, 60 percent had a low risk of heart disease compared to those who didn’t live a healthy lifestyle. Among those that didn’t keep a healthy weight or diet, drank, smoke and didn’t exercise, only 5 percent were categorized as low risk.