Open Access News Health & Social Care News Cardiovascular health: Powering longevity through heart-healthy living August 22, 2024 Image: © PeopleImages | iStock Supporting cardiovascular health is important at every age, and early influences can improve health outcomes years later As the body ages, lots of changes happen that can increase a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Blood vessels narrow. Arteries stiffen.
Cell mutations can occur, while genes can influence fate. Fortunately, researchers have found that there’s a lot people can do to reduce the negative effects of these changes — and it’s never too early or too late to start. In fact, the steps people take to support a healthy heart early in life can do wonders to support their cardiovascular function later on.
“We can control our destiny even if we can’t control the genes that we inherit,” said Daniel Levy, M.D., senior investigator of the Laboratory for Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Genomics at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers have long been studying how people can do that and have come up with multiple ways to predict how well a person’s cardiovascular system will function later in life. Many of these prediction models use standard measures of heart health, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Additionally, researchers are studying how inflammation in the body may provide additional clues to predict hear.