By David Liu, PHD

Sunday Sept 16, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- There are only a few things a person should do or not do to eliminate his or her odds to suffer an acute heart attack or acute myocardial infarction by up to 90 percent, according to a study in the Lancet.

Salim Yusuf DPhil and colleagues conducted the study and found smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, psychosocial factors were associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction while daily consumption of fruit and vegetables, regularly alcohol consumption and physical activity were correlated with reduced risk.

After analysing data from 15152 cases of acute myocardial infarction and 14820 controls from 52 countries who were enrolled in the INTERHEART Study, the researchers found current smokers compared with never smokers were associated  with 187 percent increased risk, history of hypertension with 91 percent increased risk, diabetes with 137 percent increased risk, psychosocial factors with 167 percent increased risk, and abdominal obesity with 12 percent increased risk for myocardial infarction.

On the other hand, they found  daily consumption of fruit and vegetables, regular alcohol consumption and regular physical activity were associated with 30 percent, 9 percent and 14 percent reduced risk for myocardial infarction, respectively. 

These associations were observed in men and women regardless of age and region. Together, these nine risk factors accounted for 90% of the population attributable risks  in men and 94% in women.

Another recent study led by Claes Held of Uppsala Clinical Research Center, Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden and colleagues showed leisure time physical activity and mild-to-moderate occupational physical activity, but not heavy physical labor were associated with reduced risk for myocardial infarction whereas owning a car and TV was associated with an increased risk, compared to those who did not own either.

Researchers reported in European Heart Journal that light physical activity and moderate physical activity were linked to 22 percent and 11 percent reduction, respectively in the risk of myocardial infarction or heart attack.  Owning a TV and a car was linked to 27 percent increased in the risk.

Owning a car and a TV may mean that the owners were rich and they tended to have reduced physical activity or they tended to use more meat and dairy products than poor people.  Red meat consumption has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease in previous studies.

Myocardial infarction or heart attack is a major killer in the U.S. and the world.