A Healthy Heart Can Lower Risk of Cancer
| Date Posted: 4/16/2013 | Author: Mandy McCue
For years, heart disease and cancer have been thought of as two separate, unrelated diseases. Could preventing one disease stop the other? The Reid Heart Center, the FirstHealth Cardiac and Vascular Institute at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, NC, and the FirstHealth FirstHealth Cancer Services have been working to provide outstanding care to patients with the latest in technology, clinical trials and clinical methods. FirstHealth is here for treatment and preventive information for most health related issues. 
The following lifestyle recommendations, according to the American Heart Association, can reduce your risk heart disease. Researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago report in the journal Circulation that these lifestyle recommendations can also help reduce your risk of cancer:
- Being physically active
- Keeping a healthy weight
- Eating a healthy diet
- Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels
- Keeping blood pressure down
- Regulating blood sugar levels
- Not smoking
These lifestyle recommendations are referred to by the American Heart Association as the Life’s Simple 7 and were implemented in 2010 to help reach the goal of reducing heart attack and stroke deaths by 20 percent by 2020.
Researchers studied the health records of 13,253 white and American-American men and women who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, which tracked the seven risk factors and the patients’ health outcome for 20 years. The researchers found that 22 percent of the participants had developed cancer over the time period. Those who were diagnosed, however, tended to not follow as many of the Life’s Simple 7 behaviors than those who did not develop cancer. People who followed six of the seven health suggestions had 51 percent lower cancer risk than participants who did not meet any of the steps.
“This adds to the strong body of research suggesting that it is never late to change, and that if you make changes like quitting smoking and improving your diet, you can reduce your risk for both cardiovascular disease and cancer.” Said lead study author Laura J. Rasmussen-Torvik, an assistant professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in a statement.
Living a proactive lifestyle is important when trying to prevent any chronic disease especially cancer. Learn more ways to reduce your risk of cancer by visiting our Pinterest page or by going to nccancercare.org. FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital’s FirstHealth Cancer Services offers treatments and support for adult cancer patients in the Pinehurst, Raeford, Sanford, Lumberton, Laurinburg, Rockingham, and Troy regions of North Carolina.
