Only 10 Percent of Adults Have Low Heart RiskNinety percent of American adults have at least one risk factor for heart disease, researchers say. Virtually all Americans have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, are overweight, smoke, or exercise too little, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team reported "Unfortunately, the limited strides that were made toward this goal during the 1970s and 1980s were eroded by the increases in excess weight, diabetes and hypertension during more recent decades," said the CDC's Dr. Earl Ford, who led the study. Ford's team looked at four national studies covering tens of thousands of Americans ages 25 to 74. Only 10 percent had low risk scores in all five categories, they reported in the journal Circulation. "Until the early '90s, we were moving in a positive direction, but then it took a turn and we're headed in a negative direction," Ford said. "When you look at the individual factors, tobacco use is still headed in the right direction and so are cholesterol levels, although that has leveled off. The problem is that blood pressure, BMI (body mass index, a measure of obesity), and diabetes are all headed in the wrong direction."
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