Fromt he "Duhhhh" dept:
NOVEMBER 14, 2000
NEWS ANALYSIS
Why Feasting Can Be Fatal
Overeating increases the risk of heart attack, a new study shows. And you can't just sweat it off since irregular exercise is a danger, too
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When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, keep the portions smaller: A new study indicates that eating too much can bring on a heart attack in those at risk.
"Overeating should be considered as a heart-attack trigger, much in the same way as extreme physical activities and severe anger episodes," says Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist with the Veterans Affairs Boston Health Care System in Brockton, Mass.
Lopez-Jiminez, who reported on the study at a Nov. 14 meeting of the American Heart Assn. (AHA) in New Orleans, headed a group that interviewed nearly 2,000 patients shortly after their heart attacks, asking them to identify possible risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, and overeating. They found that people at risk for heart disease were four times more likely to suffer a myocardial infarction soon after consuming a big meal than those not at risk.
The researchers found that 158 patients reported having an unusually heavy meal during the 26 hours preceding the heart attack. Twenty-five of the patients had eaten the meal within two hours of the attack. Only six patients reported the large meal the day before. The remaining patients in the group had eaten the meal at various times before their heart attack, ruling out time of day as a factor.
DEADLY WORKOUTS. Gluttony may qualify as one of the seven deadly sins, but why does it touch off heart attacks? Lopez-Jimenez, who is also on the staff of the Harvard Medical School, suggests two explanations: Fatty meals affect the layer of tissue that lines the arteries, and eating raises the blood level of a hormone that suddenly increases blood pressure and pulse rate.
The take-home message to keep from being felled by too much turkey and stuffing: Exercise and eat moderately. "People at risk should be careful not only about the total caloric intake they eat every day but the size of individual meals as well," says Lopez-Jimenez.
But as for the advice to exercise, unless you already do it every day, don't rush off to the health club to "work off" today's meal, advises Barry A. Franklin, director of cardiac rehabilitation at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. He told the AHA meeting that a study of health and fitness center members showed that those who exercise sporadically have a greater risk of heart attack than people who work out on a regular basis do.
In a two-year study, Franklin and his colleagues found 71 fatal heart attacks or strokes during a total of 182.3 million workouts. Almost half the deaths occurred in people who exercised less than once a week. Women accounted for only 10 of the deaths, even though the health-club members represented both sexes almost equally. The average age of those who died was 52.5 years, compared with an average age of about 30 for all the fitness club members.
OLDER MEMBERSHIP. "Exercise by itself is safe," insists Franklin. But he compares infrequent exercisers to a man "who sits on his couch, then goes out twice a year to shovel heavy, wet snow after a big storm -- and one day keels over dead from a heart attack."
Other researchers at the conference reported that health clubs are not exactly the safest place to have a heart attack. A survey of health clubs in Ohio found that while 17% of the clubs had reported a heart attack or sudden death in the past five years, 28% did not screen prospective members for heart-attack risk. Moreover, 92% of the clubs did not hold quarterly medical-emergency drills and nearly 60% did not give their employees written instructions for emergency response to apparent heart attacks.
If the fitness centers don't become more attentive to the health of their members, they can expect the fatality rate in their facilities to increase, predicts Kyle J. McInnis, associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Massachusetts, who led the study. "The fastest-growing health-club membership segment is in the over-55 age group," he says. "This group is hardly the same as the younger, healthy persons in their 20s and 30s who typically went to health clubs in the past."
So no matter how much food is on the table, leave the stuffing to the bird. And when you're done eating, take a nice, leisurely walk.
DAK |
