HHS HealthBeat (August 31, 2009)

Strong-hearted men

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

There’s a way to be a strong-hearted man, and researchers say it involves healthy living.  At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Luc Djoussé saw that in data on 20,900 male doctors over more than 22 years.

The study found that men who exercised regularly, drank moderately, did not smoke, were not overweight and ate cereal as well as fruits and vegetables had a lower risk of heart failure over their lifetimes.

Djoussé compared the risk of heart failure in doctors who did those things with doctors who did not: 

[Luc Djoussé speaks] "It dropped from 21 percent to 10 percent if a physician was observing four or more desirable lifestyle factors."

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011