Maintaining A Healthy Lifestyle From Twenties To Forties Leads To Healthier Middle Age

Healthy people in their twenties who were able to maintain a healthy lifestyle into their forties – lean body mass index, moderate alcohol intake, no smoking, healthy diet and regular exercise – kept their risk of cardiovascular disease low in middle age, according to a U.S. study. Researchers analyzed 20 years of data on key lifestyle factors from more than 3,000 participants in a national study. In the first year of the study (1985, average age 24 years), 44 percent had a low cardiovascular disease risk profile. Twenty years later, only 24.5 percent fell into the low cardiovascular disease risk category. The increased risk of the others was due to unhealthy diets, weight gain, smoking, etc., all of which combined to increase blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.