Eating more nuts and sitting down less could lead to a drastically reduced risk of suffering a heart attack or heart disease.
Two separate studies have both concluded that some simple diet and movement changes could keep your heart healthy for longer.In the first piece of research, academics from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that eating a handful of nuts daily, especially tree nuts like Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, shea nuts, and walnuts, slashes diabetics’ risk of a heart attack or stroke by a third.
It also leads to a diabetic patient having a 34 per cent less chance to dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD), and 17 per cent less chance of developing it. Additionally, eating nuts on a regular basis reduced the risk of coronary heart disease by 20 per cent and dying from any cause by 31 per cent.
Our findings provide new evidence that supports the recommendation of including nuts in healthy dietary patterns for the prevention of cardiovascular disease complications and premature deaths among individuals with diabetes, said lead author lead author Dr Gang Liu.
The second study, led by University of California, San Diego researchers, found that women who work out regularly have a reduced risk of heart disease compared to those who sit for long periods.
They found that swapping out just one hour of sitting down a day slashed the risk of cardiovascular disease by more than 10 per cent and heart disease by more than 25 per cent.Reductions of sedentary time do not need to happen all at once, said co-author Dr Andrea LaCroix.I recommend to all women who, like me, are over 60, to make a conscious effort to interrupt our sitting by getting up and moving around as often as we can.