Amazon tribe has the healthiest hearts ever studied

[Judi Lynn]

Katherine Martinko (@feistyredhair)
Living / Health
March 27, 2017





CC BY 2.0 Eli Duke
Heart attacks and strokes are virtually unknown among the Tsimane people of the Bolivian rainforest. What can we learn from this?

The Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon have the world’s healthiest hearts. A study published earlier this month in The Lancet says that heart attacks and strokes are virtually unknown among this population that follows a pre-industrialized lifestyle. Heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose are also impressively low. When calcium plaque buildup is used as a measure of arterial age, Tsimane arteries look thirty years younger than ours. In other words, an 80-year-old Tsimane man has the heart of a 50-year-old American.

While much of the Western world struggles with sickly hearts and their consequences, this research is particularly relevant. It could hold valuable clues to improving the health of people in industrial nations, where more than 50 percent of the population is at moderate to high risk of heart disease.

Says senior anthropology author Professor Hillard Kaplan of the University of New Mexico:

“Our study shows that the Tsimane indigenous South Americans have the lowest prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis of any population yet studied. Their lifestyle suggests that a diet low in saturated fats and high in non-processed fiber-rich carbohydrates, along with wild game and fish, not smoking and being active throughout the day could help prevent hardening in the arteries of the heart.”

More:
http://www.treehugger.com/health/amazon-tribe-has-healthiest-hearts-ever-studied.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

Environment & Energy:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1127109333