It's never too late to get healthy

Even after age 60, people can significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes by adopting healthier habits, a new study from the UK shows.

"The present findings emphasize the benefits of lifestyle modification, including losing weight, increasing physical activity, stopping smoking, and avoiding a high-carbohydrate diet, in reducing the risk of the metabolic syndrome in older men," report Dr. S. Goya Wannamethee of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and colleagues.

People with the metabolic syndrome have a constellation of risk factors including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, impaired blood glucose metabolism, and high cholesterol. The syndrome, which is more common among older people, increases the likelihood that a person will go on to develop heart disease and diabetes.

To better understand how lifestyle changes might affect metabolic syndrome risk in older people, Wannamethee and colleagues looked at 3,051 men aged 60 to 79 participating in a long-term study of heart disease. All were free of diabetes and heart disease, but about one in four had the metabolic syndrome.