Live better with Life’s Simple 7.

Great Care is happy to share a recent report from the American Heart Association’s journal “Hypertension” showing that healthy arteries may be possible with aging.

“High blood pressure and increased blood vessel stiffness are often considered common parts of aging,” says the AHA. “Having healthy arteries into one’s 70s and beyond is challenging and depends on modifiable lifestyle factors, not necessarily genetics.”

The nonprofit organization reports that having the blood vessels of a healthy 20-year-old into one’s 70s is possible but difficult in Western culture, according to new research in the journal “Hypertension.”

“For the most part, it’s not genetic factors that stiffen the body’s network of blood vessels during aging. Modifiable lifestyle factors – like those identified in the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7  – are the leading culprits,” says study author Teemu J. Niiranen, M.D., research fellow at Boston University School of Medicine, Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts.

“Vascular aging is thought of as normal aging. As people get older, their arteries become stiffer and they develop high blood pressure,” Dr. Niiranen says. “In fact, that’s what happens to most people beyond age 70. But it doesn’t have to happen.”

Researchers studied 3,196 adults ages 50 and older in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study. They defined healthy vascular aging for people 50 years old or older as having both normal blood pressure and pulse-wave velocity near the level of healthy people age 30 or younger. Pulse-wave velocity is a measurement of stiffness in the blood vessels.

The most important factors of achieving healthy vascular function were staying lean, or having a low body mass index, and avoiding diabetes, according to Dr. Niiranen.

“The other lifestyle measures, such as maintaining favorable cholesterol levels, also came into play,” Dr. Niiranen says. “In fact, the researchers found that those who achieved six out of seven of the Simple 7 healthy heart goals were 10 times more likely to achieve healthy vascular aging than those who achieved zero to one of the measures.

The researchers also found people with healthy vascular aging were at a 55 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease. According to Dr. Niiranen, the Western culture that includes poor diets and sedentary lifestyles is a hurdle for maintaining healthy blood vessels.

“Age-associated high blood pressure, for example, is not common in indigenous hunter-gatherer populations,” he says. “Unfortunately, there is still no magic pill that helps achieve healthy vascular aging. Achieving Life’s Simple 7 increases the odds of keeping healthy blood vessels even into old age. For the population’s health, healthy vascular aging should be considered a universal goal.”

Additional Resources: heart.org and strokeassociation.org

The professionals at Great Care are available to talk with you and your family about all of your home care needs, including respite care. Great Care is a non medical in-home care agency providing quality and affordable elder care in Fishers, IN and the surrounding areas. Call (888) 240-9101 for more information.