Heart attack victims are becoming younger and move obese for the past couple of decades as revealed by the new research study. Those who suffer from the condition are inclined to have diabetes, smoke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high blood pressure as compared to the patients over the past 20 years.
The study, which is due to present on April 4 at the American College of Cardiology in Chicago, looked at the risk factors of the heart disease of almost 4,000 patients with ST-elevation heart attacks or STEM, a serious form of heart attack which causes disability or death. It also found out that the average age among the STEMI patients in the US between 1995 and 2014 have been lowered from 64 to 60 years old, ACSH reported.
Furthermore, the study also discovered that the obesity rate increased from 31 to 40 percent for the same period, while the ratio of patients with diabetes has risen from 24 to 31 percent. An increase in the high blood pressure has also been noted, from 55 to 77 percent , and the COPD, which is associated with smoking, also increased from 5 to 12 percent.
In spite the fact that smoking rate has been declining for the past 20 years because of the anti-smoking campaign by health care providers and the government, the study indicated a rise in the smoking rates among the patients from 28 to 46 percent, a surprising and alarming result according to the experts.
According to Samir Kapadia, one of the researchers from Cleveland Clinic, the medical field has done an excellent job of enhancing the treatment for heart disease, although the study reveals that they still have to do better in terms of prevention, as reported by Eurekalert.
Kapadia, along with other researchers, called on the healthcare experts to tell the patients during their checkups regarding the risk factors of heart attack, which can be lowered by eating a nutritious diet, losing weight and becoming physically active. The patients were also recommended to put their health as their top priority and to consider a healthy lifestyle to prevent heart attacks.
Heart attack therefore can be prevented by changing the unhealthy lifestyle choices like smoking, and reducing the risk factors of the heart disease.