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Being physically fit, not smoking, and maintaining a normal waist girth is associated with lower risk of CHD events, and CVD and all-cause mortality in men

Analysing the medical evaluations of 23,657 men aged between 30 and 79 years, Drs Chong-Do Lee, Xuemei Sui and Steven N. Blair(1) concluded that smokers who were unfit and overweight cut their life expectancy by an average of 14.2 years.

“To address health promotion and disease prevention strategies, it is important to increase healthy low-risk populations, which is a key to CHD (coronary heart disease) prevention,” the study’s authors wrote.

They found that the three factors contributed to a 59 per cent lower risk of CHD events, a 77 per cent lower risk of death from CVD (cardiovascular disease) and a 69 per cent lower risk of all-cause mortality, compared with men with none of these low-risk factors.

Men with a normal waist girth(2) and who were physically fit and not smoking had a 59% lower risk of CHD events (95% confidence interval [CI], 39%-72%), , a 77 per cent lower risk of death from CVD (cardiovascular disease) and a 69% lower risk of all-cause mortality (95% CI, 60%-76%), compared with men with none of these low-risk factors.

Men with two or three combined low-risk factors had lower blood lipid levels (total cholesterol, lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides), blood pressures (systolic and diastolic), fasting glucose levels and lower frequencies of diabetes and cigarette smoking, all of which may contribute to slowing the progression of early atherosclerosis.

1. Chong-Do Lee, Xuemei Sui and Steven N. Blair. Combined Effects of Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Not Smoking, and Normal Waist Girth on Morbidity and Mortality in Men. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(22):2096-2101. 2. Normal waist girth is approximately 95cm in both sexes.
2. Photo credit: http://www.nsma.org.au/pics2000/fatboy4.jpg