By Chuck Norris
In 1944, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt prepared for a fourth run at the presidency, his state of health was in serious decline. According to an essay by historian and University of Virginia Professor Emeritus William Leuchtenburg, “a March 1944 examination by his doctors revealed a variety of heart ailments, high blood pressure, and bronchitis. … On April 12, while sitting for a portrait, he collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage.” Word of his passing stunned the world. Four years following his death, a major research study was launched designed to better understand the disease that took his life.
To learn more, medical researchers decided to launch a longitudinal study focused on the residents of Framingham, a small community in Massachusetts. In the 1940s, it was a “mostly working-class town of just over 20,000,” writes USA Today reporter Karen Weintraub in a recent report. Little did they know that this study of the people of Framingham would today be viewed as “foundational” in identifying key risk factors for heart disease.
Today, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death in the United States. Back then, “little was known about how to prevent or treat it,” writes Weintraub. The president’s rising blood pressure was seen as problematic, but doctors had no good tools back then to bring it down.
Recently, the Framingham Heart Study, which is still underway today, marked its 75th anniversary. “Over three generations, its findings have changed how Americans and their doctors view heart disease and what to do about it,” says Weintraub. “It confirmed the role high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood sugar and smoking play in the development of heart disease, stroke and dementia among other ailments. … It even led to the concept that there are ‘risk factors’ for disease … Every trend in cardiovascular disease over the past 75 years has either started or passed through the study.”
Dr. Daniel Levy is a cardiologist who specializes in heart disease prevention and is the director of the Framingham Heart Study. He has been involved in the study since 1984. He points out that data from the first two decades of the Framingham study showed that ” if you just take those three cardinal risk factors from Framingham — blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking — if you could eradicate those three factors, it’s estimated we could reduce cardiovascular risk by about 90%,” Levy says.
Weintraub interviewed Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “The true message of the Framingham Heart Study is that overall health is tied to healthy eating and other lifestyle factors,” she writes, according to Mozaffarian. Studies show that dramatically improving the diets of patients who’ve recently had heart attacks reduces the risk of a repeat occurrence by 30% — as much as drugs.”
When I read stuff like this, the same question always emerges. When will we ever get the message? Healthy eating combined with other healthy lifestyle factors is the key to good health as well as the potential for a longer life. Seems like that important, maybe even lifesaving message has been out there for a while now.
Sometimes, even when just a little is done by a person in a “healthy” direction, it can result in a positive result.
According to a large study of more than 25,000 people published in the journal The Lancet Public Health, even short bursts of physical activity from doing simple daily tasks can produce benefits. Reports Berkeley Lovelace Jr. of NBC News, “Even those who got as little as 1 to 3 minutes of activity experienced some positive effects. … A few minutes of physical activity, such as walking, gardening or household chores, each day was linked to lower risks of heart attack, stroke and early death.”
The study, conducted in the United Kingdom focusing on adults ages 42 to 78 who wore fitness trackers every day for two years, showed that “people who made it a habit to move for 5 to 10 minutes a day enjoyed the most health benefits,” says Lovelace.
Says Emmanuel Stamatakis, a senior author of the study and a professor of physical activity, lifestyle, and population health at the University of Sydney, “every minute counts, even if that minute of physical activity is part of our daily routine.” People included in the analysis did not exercise or play a sport, and almost all the physical activity happened in periods lasting less than 10 minutes, adds Lovelace.
“The researchers found that these short bursts of physical activity throughout the day, lasting less than 10 minutes total, were linked to a 52% decrease in the risk of premature death, as well as a 41% decrease in the risks of heart attack and stroke, compared to getting no physical activity,” reports NBC News. “Moderate intensity was defined as any activity during which a person found it challenging to sing but could still speak comfortably; vigorous intensity meant the person couldn’t speak more than a few words,” reports Lovelace.
The popular concept of high-intensity interval training, know as HIIT, is rooted in the similar principles used in the study.
“It’s important to understand the psychology of eating,” U.S. News health reporter Stacey Colino reminds us. “We live in a world where highly palatable packaged and ultra-processed foods are plentiful and ubiquitous,” she writes. “Food companies specifically formulate these foods in a way to hit the taste buds’ ‘bliss point,’ which refers to the perfect combination of added salt, sugar and fat that keeps consumers craving more.”
“If you want to make specific changes to your eating habits, think about what you value, then link that to the choices you’re trying to make,” suggests Kathryn Ross, an associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “Making this connection can motivate you to act in accordance with what you value and improve your eating habits in the process.”
Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com. To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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