Stay Healthy Now -- You'll Thank Yourself in Thirty Years

A new study that links midlife blood pressure and body mass index with later heart failure provides further evidence that a healthy old age starts with a healthy middle age.

In a general sense, this isn't a surprise. We've written about the importance of healthy middle age before -- see our "Choose to Live to 85." The new research provides further evidence of the link, and suggests what processes may be occurring.

Dr. Douglas Lee and a team at the University of Toronto found that +20 mm Hg higher blood pressure reading at age 50 was linked to a 36% higher risk of heart failure over the next twenty years. Other strong links were found between pulse rate and the standard measure of whether a patient is overweight, body mass index.

The researchers believe that high blood pressure and body mass index at midlife lead to "cardiac remodeling" -- a well documented process of changes to the heard and circulatory system.

Importantly, the study also asks clinicians and other medical professionals to stop viewing heart failure as a disease of old age. Dr. Lee and his colleagues write that because heart failure risk increases dramatically in the seventh decade of life and beyond, physicians often focus on prevention only for their older patients. High blood pressure and unhealthy weight at midlife are often not viewed as seriously as they should be.

The new work shows that heart disease develops over decades, and that prevention should begin in middle age.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., responsible for over 650,000 deaths in 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available).

A summary of the study is at MedScape Today here.