In the late 1940s, scientists working for the U.S. government were concerned about a disease that may have become the country’s greatest risk of death. For the first time ever, it wasn’t related to a virus, which was often the greatest fear around the world regarding more pandemics occurring. After the two World Wars, no longer was infectious disease (the flu, polio, cholera, etc.) the number one killer. Instead, one in every two adults was dying of heart disease.
One of the greatest medical advances in history came from a town in Massachusetts called Framingham. It was in this location that public health officials tried to discover which people got sick and for what reason. In other words, for the first time ever they were attempting to uncover risk factors for heart disease — a notion that many scientists at the time believed was ridiculous because the thought was that diseases not caused by an infection could not be prevented. (Reasoning, that we know now, is impossibly incorrect.)
The officials enlisted nearly all the residents of Framingham, with about 5,200 people initially signed on for the study. Later that number doubled, as the children of these individuals grew up and joined the landmark study that their parents had enlisted in. Applying the principles of epidemics to the study of heart disease, the officials had a start-up budget of half a million dollars (a rather modest sum for a major study).
The results of the Framingham study set the stage for everything we know about heart disease, which today is the most prevalent health problem in North America (far surpassing cancer). The initial results were published back in the early 1960s in a paper called “Factors of risk in the development of coronary heart disease.” This would change medicine forever. But the study is ongoing, and still is in full force today, with a third generation of Framingham residents being monitored by researchers.
From this New England town, we’ve learned countless critical risk factors for heart disease — and more than 1,700 scientific studies have been authored as a result. From the ’60s through to the ’90s, here are some of the major findings in chronological order:
1) Smoking cigarettes raises the risk of heart disease. 2) High cholesterol and blood pressure do as well. 3) Exercise lowers risk while obesity raises risk. 4) High blood pressure boosts the risk of stroke. 5) After menopause, women are at much greater risk of developing heart disease. 6) Stress and other psychological factors raise the risk of heart disease. 7) Having high levels of HDL cholesterol lower your risk of heart disease death. 
A stretched left ventricle raises the risk of stroke. 9) High blood pressure is a genetic problem.
All of these risks were assessed from Framingham and all of them are vitally important to our understanding of the number one killer in our country. Since it began, deaths from stroke and heart disease have fallen by about 60% because of what this study has taught us: cardiovascular problems are influenced by a web of problems including lifestyle, environment, and genetics.
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Tags: exercise, general health advice, obesity
