年轻人现在可以做些什么来预防心脏病发作和中风

Clogged arteries – which can lead to heart attacks and strokes – can begin to develop in young adulthood. But a new study suggests it may be less likely to happen to those who better adhere to a set of lifestyle behaviors and factors such as maintaining a healthy weight and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

的 研究, 周二发表在《沙巴足球体育平台》上, analyzed the association between 年轻的成年人' adherence to metrics for measuring cardiovascular health and early indicators of plaque buildup in the carotid arteries – the arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain. 这些动脉堵塞会导致中风.

“许多人认为心血管疾病只会影响老年人, 但这并不准确,”医生说。. Fangqi郭, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral 研究 associate in the department of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. "Clinical symptoms of cardiovascular disease often manifest in middle to late adulthood, 但这可能早在儿童时期就开始发展."

斑块形成, 也就是动脉粥样硬化, 能部分或完全阻断血液流动吗, 导致中风, 心脏病和肾病. 的 new study looked at early signs of its development in 年轻的成年人 by measuring the thickness of carotid artery walls; carotid artery stiffness; and fat deposits in carotid artery walls.

心血管健康风险通过两套指标来衡量——一套是旧的, 一种是由美国心脏协会新开发的. 旧工具, 叫做《简单人生, 或LS7, 包括四个健康因素-身体质量指数, 总胆固醇, 血糖和血压，以及三种健康行为:饮食, 体育活动与吸烟. 这个新工具， 2022年年中发布 和重命名 生活的真谛, or LE8, added healthy sleep duration as an essential component of good heart and brain health. 的 new checklist also replaced smoking with nicotine exposure to account for e-cigarette use and secondhand smoke exposure, 总胆固醇测量改为非高密度脂蛋白胆固醇.

Researchers calculated scores for both tools so they could compare data collected prior to and after the change.

郭和她的同事分析了240名年轻人的数据, 21到27岁, who had a carotid artery ultrasound between 2018 and 2022 as part of the Southern California Children's Health Study. LS7 and LE8 scores were determined using self-reported questionnaires for health behaviors, as well as measurements taken from blood tests and physical exams for health factors. LS7粘附性计算为理想, 中等或较差, and LE8 adherence was calculated on a scale from zero to 100 and then categorized as ideal, 中等或较差的分数.

LE8得分较高的研究参与者颈动脉壁较薄, 动脉僵硬度降低，颈动脉更健康. 使用LS7评分也发现了类似的关联. Overall, as cardiovascular health scores rose, early signs of atherosclerosis decreased.

Researchers found a stronger link between carotid artery health and health factors like blood pressure than health behaviors like physical activity. That could be because the participants were too young for the consequences of poor health behaviors to manifest into health problems, 郭说.

“健康行为的影响可能还不明显，”她说. 也, 因为行为是自我报告的, that data might not be as accurate as the more objectively measured health factors.

Young adults should be made aware of the risks of failing to adhere to good health behaviors, 郭说. "Even if they appear healthy, some of these risk factors may have already started developing. Understanding this and improving adherence to LE8 could potentially improve their cardiovascular health in the long run."

But 年轻的成年人 are growing less – not more – aware of the risks posed by heart disease, 根据… 2019年美国心脏协会调查. 在过去的十年里，黑人女性的意识也有所下降, who have high rates of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors because of systemic barriers that have harmed their health for decades.

慢性疾病的发展需要沙巴足球体育平台. Sparkle Springfield, an assistant professor of public health science at Loyola University in Chicago. “其中一些代谢功能障碍在生命早期就开始发展."

Young adults – especially Black women – are dealing with a lot of stressors that may make it more challenging to maintain good health, 斯普林菲尔德说, 谁没有参与这项新研究. 她自己的研究表明 年轻黑人妇女 with high levels of stress have poor adherence to LE8's healthy diet component, and 年轻的成年人 overall have poorer diet quality and less psychological resilience than older adults.

年轻人正在经历许多人生的转折, 比如从高中或大学毕业, 开创事业, 想找个买得起的房子，组建家庭, 斯普林菲尔德说. 对于年轻的黑人成年人来说, they may be doing all of these things while also dealing with racial discrimination and other negative social determinants of health, 她说.

“如果你在童年时期没有养成健康的行为习惯, 作为一个年轻人，做出积极的改变可能更具挑战性,斯普林菲尔德说. “如果你不遵守LE8标准, 有证据表明，你可能会患上慢性疾病."