Where You Live Plays a Big Role in Your Risk for Heart Disease
If you wanna fend off heart disease, here’s a novel idea: get outta town! According to Health magazine, a new study finds that WHERE you live plays a bigger role in your risk for heart disease than your ethnicity or race. More specifically, CITY dwellers are more likely to have heart problems than they’re country-living counterparts.
Dr. Carol Homko is a professor at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, where the study was done. She says in their research, they found that - based on a comparison of blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking status, age, gender and diabetes – urbanites had a greater risk of developing heart disease over the next 10 years. Also, 48% of people who lived in the city smoked, as opposed to 18% in the country. Also, city dwellers were also more likely to suffer from diabetes – 55% versus 37%.
So why is this? Homko says the differences are largely due to lifestyle. It’s much harder to get outdoors and exercise in the city because of safety issues. It’s also more difficult to find reasonably priced fruits and vegetables. So if you’ve ever considered moving out of the city, there’s another good reason to get packing!
