New journal starts publication by looking at controlling the No. 1 cause of death
Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in the United States. Although some risk factors, such as age and heredity, cannot be controlled, many factors, including smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure, obesity, and inactivity can be modified, thus, lowering the risk.
This lifestyle concern is thoroughly explored in the headline article of the debut issue of the new American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM) published by SAGE. The article, co-written by journal editor-in-chief James M. Rippe, MD, along with Theodore J. Angelopoulos, PhD, MPH, and Linda Zukley, MA, RN, exposes the truth about coronary heart disease (CHD) and its causes.
"In many ways," write the authors, "coronary heart disease represents the quintessential lifestyle disease of developed countries. Six of the major risk factors for developing CHD involve lifestyle practices, including the decision of whether or not to smoke, the control of blood pressure and lipids, diabetes, level of physical activity, and obesity."
Encouraging heart patients to control modifiable risk factors fits perfectly with the mission of the new American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine of looking at both the medical and the lifestyle aspects of disease management. The article concludes that intervention from health care providers makes good sense, to help heart patients reduce the controllable CHD risk factors through proper lifestyle choices.
The article, "The Rationale for Intervention to Reduce the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease," published in the January/February 2007 issue of AJLM, can be accessed free for a limited time at http://ajl.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/1/1/10. Specific techniques for incorporating lifestyle changes into clinical practice to lower the risk of CHD will be published in the second issue of AJLM.
The American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM), a bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal which began publishing in January 2007, focuses on recognizing and addressing the impact that lifestyle decisions have on health, emphasizing the interaction between traditional therapies and lifestyle modalities to achieve superior outcomes in disease treatment. It also provides information about therapies that minimize the extent to which illness impacts lifestyle. For more information, visit http://ajlm.sagepub.com
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