Framingham Heart Study
Framingham Heart Study
In 1948, a healthy American breakfast was fried eggs with ham or bacon and bread with butter. Almost seventy percent of men smoked. After the deprivation of the Great Depression and World War II, the best thing a man could do for his family was to put food on the table for the family to feast upon. Living rooms across the country were beginning to glow in the blue light of the television sets, producing the first generation of couch potatoes. In that atmosphere, researchers descended on the town of Framingham, Massachusetts to discover why 1 in 4 men aged 55 or older developed heart disease. Many doctors did not even know what was killing their patients.
The findings of the Framingham Heart Study which began in 1948 have been nothing short of revolutionary. Over the years, they have provided conclusive evidence that cardiovascular disease is largely the result of measurable and modifiable risk factors, and that individuals can gain control over their heart health by looking carefully at their diet and lifestyle and changing their intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, tobacco smoke; losing weight or becoming physically active; and regulating their levels of stress and blood pressure. It is principally because of this study that this understanding of what was once deemed a “silent killer” today seems intuitive. The Framingham Heart Study was launched not long after Franklin Delano Roosevelt succumbed to a massive stroke, the result of runaway blood pressure, at a time when cardiologists in the United States numbered fewer than 400 and heart disease was the nation’s number one cause of death. The study asked 5,209 citizens of Framingham, Massachusetts, 2,336 were men and 2,873 were women from the town of 28,000, who over ate, smoked, and suffered heart attacks and strokes to the same extent as the rest of the United States to undergo biennial physical examination, blood tests, and detailed interviews concerning their behavior. In 1971,
In 1948, a healthy American breakfast was fried eggs with ham or bacon and bread with butter. Almost seventy percent of men smoked. After the deprivation of the Great Depression and World War II, the best thing a man could do for his family was to put food on the table for the family to feast upon. Living rooms across the country were beginning to glow in the blue light of the television sets, producing the first generation of couch potatoes. In that atmosphere, researchers descended on the town of Framingham, Massachusetts to discover why 1 in 4 men aged 55 or older developed heart disease. Many doctors did not even know what was killing their patients.
The findings of the Framingham Heart Study which began in 1948 have been nothing short of revolutionary. Over the years, they have provided conclusive evidence that cardiovascular disease is largely the result of measurable and modifiable risk factors, and that individuals can gain control over their heart health by looking carefully at their diet and lifestyle and changing their intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, tobacco smoke; losing weight or becoming physically active; and regulating their levels of stress and blood pressure. It is principally because of this study that this understanding of what was once deemed a “silent killer” today seems intuitive. The Framingham Heart Study was launched not long after Franklin Delano Roosevelt succumbed to a massive stroke, the result of runaway blood pressure, at a time when cardiologists in the United States numbered fewer than 400 and heart disease was the nation’s number one cause of death. The study asked 5,209 citizens of Framingham, Massachusetts, 2,336 were men and 2,873 were women from the town of 28,000, who over ate, smoked, and suffered heart attacks and strokes to the same extent as the rest of the United States to undergo biennial physical examination, blood tests, and detailed interviews concerning their behavior. In 1971,