Here’s some good news for everyone: being healthy can lower your risk of coronary heart disease! Yes, this seems obvious that exercising, not smoking, and staying thin will help, but did you know it will reduce your risk 59-77%? Pretty impressive, no? Read on…

Coronary heart disease basically means disease leading to heart attacks. This is the #1 killer in most countries, and the major risks are high blood pressure and cholesterol problems. But a huge amount of your risk is lifestyle-related. This has been proven many times, and now yet again, in this 2009 paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine which is discussed in TheHeart.org (Reduced risk of CVD, death in trim, fit, nonsmoking men). They surveyed over 23,000 men and focused on smoking status, exercise and waist circumference (a simple measure of obesity). In their results, men with a normal waist girth and who were physically fit and not smoking had a 59% lower risk of CHD events (95% confidence interval [CI], 39%-72%), a 77% lower risk of CVD mortality (95% CI, 65%-85%), and a 69% lower risk of all-cause mortality (95% CI, 60%-76%) compared with men with none of these low-risk factors.

Lower Life Expectancy

There was also a dramatic difference in life expectancy; men with zero low-risk factors, compared with 3 low-risk factors had a shorter life expectancy by 14.2 years (95% CI, 12.2-15.9 years).

So, clearly and dramatically this shows just how strongly your everyday, conscious life decisions can affect your overall health. Unfortunately, they estimate that in America right now, only 4% of the population fits the lowest-risk category.

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