According to MedPageToday, a recent study has found that becoming unemployed may dramatically increase the likelihood of having a heart attack.
The study, which was conducted by Matthew Dupre, Ph.D., of Duke University, and colleagues, analyzed nearly 13,000 subjects. The team found that losing a job increased the hazard ratio of experiencing an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), even after factors such as insurance status, smoking, alcohol consumption and body mass index were taken into consideration.
Throughout the 20-year follow up, the investigators found that heart attack risk tended to increase with multiple job losses.
“Results from our large prospective cohort study demonstrated the powerful effect of one’s lifetime employment history and cumulative job losses on risks for a major cardiovascular event,” wrote Dupre in the journal, Archives of Internal Medicine.
Dupre and and his colleagues also found that the length of time subjects were unemployed did not influence the risk of a heart attack.
Heart disease facts
Nearly 600,000 deaths, or 25 percent of all fatalities, are caused by heart disease each year in the U.S., reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 935,000 people suffer heart attacks annually, 325,000 of whom have had a previous attack.
Heart attack prevention
According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the best ways to avoid cardiovascular disease is to exercise for 30 to 60 minutes a day. Physical activity helps relieve the tension on your heart by reducing other risk factors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. The source notes that people don’t have to exercise for a continuous time period – they can break their workouts up into 10-minute sections.
The Mayo Clinic also reports that diet can play a key role in cardiovascular wellness. People should avoid eating foods that are high in saturated fat, such as red meat, dairy products and palm oils, along with sources laden with trans-fats, like fast foods, packaged snack foods, crackers and margarines.
Regular doctor checkups are also recommended in order to assess certain risk factors that may contribute to heart attacks, such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels and diabetes. The University of Maryland reports that clinical evidence has shown that consuming omega-3 fatty acids may be effective in reducing each of these factors. Omega-3s can be found in help milk, chia seeds, flax seeds and an Omegakrill supplement from Dr. Newton’s Naturals.
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