Here’s another reason to consider some healthy changes to your diet. A recent study found that improvements not only help your heart, but also lower your risk for cancer. The study, an analysis of the long-term French GAZEL study, followed people in midlife for nearly 25 years. It was published in JACC: CardioOncology.
In the study, researchers led by Dr. Thomas van Sloten of the University of Paris, used data from 13,933 participants in the GAZEL study who were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease to evaluate the association between change in the American Heart Association Life’s Simple 7 cardiovascular (CV) health score over seven years and cancer and CV events.
They looked at breast, lung, prostate, colon and a category of other cancers.
The AHA’s Life Simple 7 include these seven habits: stop smoking, eat better, get active, lose weight, manage blood pressure, control cholesterol and reduce blood sugar.
The AHA Life’s Simple 7 CV health score for participants ranged between zero and 14 points and included poor, intermediate and ideal levels of smoking, physical activity, obesity, diet, blood pressure, diabetes status and lipids.
Not many of us achieve great scores on the Simple 7. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that fewer than 7% of all American adults have optimal health across five major areas related to heart and metabolic health: weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular disease status.
In the French study, in 1989-1990, every 1-point increase in the AHA Life’s Simple 7 CV health score was associated with a 9% reduced risk for any cancer and a 20% risk for cardiac events. Over 7 years, every 1-point increase in the health score was associated with a 5% reduced risk for any cancer and a 7% reduced risk for cardiac events.
Even after omitting the smoking metric, researchers saw similar improvements.
In an earlier study published in the journal Circulation in January 2022, researchers found that participants of the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study lowered their cardiovascular risk by adhering to the AHA’s Life Simple 7 guidelines, no matter their genetic susceptibility.
The study looked at 8,372 white participants and 2,314 black participants, 45 years of age and older and free of cardiovascular events at baseline.
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