{"id":1413,"date":"2017-10-25T16:47:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2017-10-25T16:47:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:47:50","slug":"for-older-adults-keeping-your-heart-healthy-may-protect-against-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/for-older-adults-keeping-your-heart-healthy-may-protect-against-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"For Older Adults, Keeping Your Heart Healthy May Protect Against Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JAGS-graphic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1223\" src=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JAGS-graphic-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"JAGS graphic\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JAGS-graphic-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JAGS-graphic-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JAGS-graphic.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Journal of the American Geriatrics Society<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u00a0Research Summary<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A healthy heart is important to the well-being of older adults. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heart.org\/HEARTORG\/\">American Heart Association<\/a> (AHA) defines \u201cideal cardiovascular health\u201d based on four health behaviors (current smoking, body mass index, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:physical-activity\/\">physical activity<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:nutrition\/\">healthy diet<\/a>) and three health factors (total cholesterol, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:high-blood-pressure\/\">blood pressure<\/a>, and fasting blood glucose level).<\/p>\n<p>Recently, a team of researchers studied older Latin Americans to examine the relationship between the AHA guidelines and disability. Their study was published in the <em>Journal of the American Geriatrics Association<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship is an important one to consider, since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:heart-attack\/\">heart disease<\/a> (also known as \u201ccardiovascular disease) can lead to several disabling problems for older adults. In fact, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:heart-attack\/\">heart attacks<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:stroke\/\">strokes<\/a> are the first and third most common causes of disability in the US. The effect of a stroke on the brain is a leading cause of disability. Cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of dementia and, for older adults, the disease also can make it difficult to function in daily life.<\/p>\n<p>In their study, the researchers used information from the Chilean National Health Survey conducted between 2009-2010. 460 Chilean adults all over age 65 participated in the study.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The researchers measured AHA-identified heart-healthy behaviors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maintain a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhlbi.nih.gov\/health\/educational\/lose_wt\/BMI\/bmicalc.htm\">Body Mass Index<\/a> (BMI) of less than 25. (BMI is a ratio between your weight and height.)<\/li>\n<li>Be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 or more days a week.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t smoke tobacco.<\/li>\n<li>Eat a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/resources\/resource:older-adults-who-eat-more-fruit-and-vegetables-and-exercise-regularly-live-longer-than-those-who-have-just-one-of-these-two-healthy-habits\/\">healthy diet<\/a> with plenty of fruits and vegetables and few to no processed or fast foods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The researchers also measured these risk factor measurements of \u201cideal cardiovascular health\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blood pressure of 120\/80<\/li>\n<li>Total cholesterol under 200 mg\/dL<\/li>\n<li>Fasting blood sugar under 100 mg\/dL<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In their study, the researchers created three different levels of health based on the participants\u2019 cardiovascular-healthy behaviors and heart health factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People in the healthiest level had 5 to 7 of the behaviors\/measurements.<\/li>\n<li>People in the middle level had 3 to 4 healthy behaviors\/measurements.<\/li>\n<li>People in the lowest (most unhealthy) level had 0 to 2 behaviors\/measurements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The researchers compared the behaviors\/measurements with disability among the participants. They learned that having an ideal level of physical activity reduced the chances for being disabled for older adults, even for those who had a history of heart disease or arthritis.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers also found that Chilean women tended to be less active and more disabled than Chilean men.<\/p>\n<p>Compared to people with an unhealthy level of behaviors\/measurements, people in the two healthier groups had a lower risk for disability.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, people who had an ideal BMI had lower disability. The researchers noted that obesity may quicken age-related declines in functional ability, and poses a threat to independence as we age. The authors suggest that public policies might promote ideal health behaviors early in life, helping people maintain their health into older adulthood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>This summary is from <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/jgs.15139\/full\"><strong>\u201cRelationship between Ideal Cardiovascular Health and Disability in Older Adults: the Chilean National Health Survey (2009-2010).\u201d<\/strong><\/a><strong> It appears online ahead of print in the September 2017 issue of the <em>Journal of the American Geriatrics Society<\/em>. <\/strong><strong>The study authors are Antonio Garc\u00eda-Hermoso, PhD<\/strong>; <strong>Robinson Ram\u00edrez-V\u00e9lez, PhD; Rodrigo Ram\u00edrez-Campillo, PhD; Mikel Izquierdo, PhD.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journal of the American Geriatrics Society\u00a0Research Summary A healthy heart is important to the well-being of older adults. The American Heart Association (AHA) defines \u201cideal cardiovascular health\u201d based on four health behaviors (current smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/for-older-adults-keeping-your-heart-healthy-may-protect-against-disability\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,91],"tags":[140,139,138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}