Healthy lifestyle could prevent common artery problems as people age

New research from Boston University shows that many of the artery problems people experience as they age could be avoided or delayed.

The study, published May 30 in Hypertension, found that high blood pressure and blood vessel stiffness could be reduced with an extremely healthy lifestyle, which can be hard to maintain for some patients.

“What we are showing is that, even in a population acculturated to a Western lifestyle, it is possible to maintain a healthy vasculature over age 70. But it is extremely challenging,” said Teemu J. Niiranen, MD, the author of the study and a research fellow at Boston University School of Medicine, in a statement.

Niiranen’s team defined health vascular aging as the absence of hypertension and having arteries similar to that of a 30-year-old person.

In the study, which included almost 3,200 patients aged 50 and older from the Framingham Heart Study, researchers found that only 18 percent of them met the requirements for healthy vascular aging. The youngest patients in the group, those who were between 50 and 59, had the highest measures of healthy vascular aging. Among those who were 70 and older, only 1 percent had healthy arteries.

“People with healthy vascular aging were at a 55 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease,” Niiranen said. “Those results are mainly a result of the softness of their arteries.”

The findings also showed that women were more likely to have healthy arteries than men, but it was mostly due to the fact that the women were generally leading healthier lifestyles. Additionally, having a low body mass index and not having diabetes was associated with healthier arteries into old age.