If you will ever benefit from any studies related to heart disease, you should thank the folks from Framingham. About two-thirds of the town signed up to be part of the Framingham Heart Study in 1948. The study has now included three generations of Framingham residents.
And consider this. When Framingham got started, we had no idea about the risk factors that contributed to heart disease. In fact, this is the study that first came up with the description, risk factors.
Here is a sampling of some of the Framingham discoveries.
- Smoking increases risk of heart dissease
- High cholesterol and high blood pressure are risk factors
- Obesity increases risk, exercise reduces it
The Framingham Study continues to this day (they are currently working to be able to predict attacks) and the associated data has been applied to several other areas of health care.
You can find out more at framinghamheartstudy.org.
