The American Heart Association (AHA) Rapid Access Journal Report recently stated that heart attack survivors who are under 50 years old may face the risk of premature death because of heart disease.
Research suggests that these patients are twice as likely to die prematurely because of heart disease as well as other smoking-related illnesses. By quitting smoking, healthy nutrition and physical activity, the chances of heart attacks can be significantly reduced.
The study evaluated data gathered from 21,693 heart attack survivors who were 50 years old or younger. This data was compared to information from 216,930 other people in the general population. After 11 years, the results showed that four out of every five heart attack survivors are men, with the average age of 45 years old. Exactly 83.6 percent of heart attack survivors were between 40 and 49; just 1.8 percent were under 30 years old.
Experts attributed the high risk of premature heart disease death to unhealthy lifestyles as well as damaged heart muscles.
“Even though you survive a heart attack at an early age, you remain at an increased risk of another attack later in life,” Dr. Morten Schmidt, lead study author and researcher at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, said. “For the same reason, it is important that patients make efforts to reduce this long-term risk by adhering to the prescribed medical therapy and by improving their lifestyle, especially by stopping smoking.”
