Four Steps to Significantly Lower Risk of Heart Disease, Early Death - East Idaho News

Four Steps to Significantly Lower Risk of Heart Disease, Early Death

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GETTY H 032111 MedicalSymbol?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1370715489127Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, doing just four things could help significantly reduce your risk of death.

The study looked at over 6,200 healthy people over a span of eight years and determined that those who met four qualifications reduced their risk of early death by 80 percent and their specific risk of heart disease by nearly 40 percent.

The four things that the researchers recommend are:

Exercise regularly
Eat a Mediterranean-style diet
Keep a normal weight
Do not smoke

According to researchers the most important of the four is opting not to smoke, as avoiding tobacco had the largest individual impact of any of the four risk factors. In fact, smokers who maintained two or more of the other healthy habits still had a higher rate of early death than non-smokers who were both sedentary and obese.

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