Washington, July 6: A new study has found that sticking to a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking, exercising regularly, having a low body weight and eating a healthy diet is associated with lower risk of sudden cardiac death in women.

“Sudden cardiac death (SCD) [defined as death occurring within one hour after symptom onset without evidence of circulatory collapse] accounts for more than half of all cardiac deaths, with an incidence of approximately 250,000 to 310,000 cases annually in the United States,” the authors of the study, said.

Using data collected as part of the Nurses’ Health Study, Stephanie E. Chiuve, Sc. D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues examined the association between a healthy lifestyle and risk of SCD.

A total of 81,722 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from June 1984 to June 2010 were included in the study, and lifestyle factors were assessed via questionnaires every two to four years.

A low-risk lifestyle was defined as not smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, exercise duration of 30 minutes/day or longer, and consuming a diet closely related to a Mediterranean-style diet
(emphasizes high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains and fish, with moderate alcohol intake).

During the 26 years of follow-up, there were 321 cases of SCD among women in the study. Not smoking, exercising and eating a healthy diet each were inversely associated with risk of SCD.

BMI also was associated with the risk of SCD, with women having a BMI between 21 and 24.9 at lowest risk.

Women at low risk for all four lifestyle factors had a 92 percent lower risk of SCD when compared with women at low risk for none of the four-lifestyle factors.

The study was published in the July 6 issue of JAMA. (ANI)