Most important meal of the day: Researchers found older men who don¿t bother eating after they get up are a quarter more likely to have heart problems
Skipping breakfast puts men at greater risk of a heart attack, researchers have warned.
Older men who don’t bother eating after they get up are a quarter more likely to have a heart attack or die from coronary disease than those who do, they found.
The researchers say missing a morning meal – or eating very late at night – may trigger changes in the body’s metabolism that lead to coronary heart disease.
It may affect blood sugar and hormone levels that make heart disease more likely, they say.
In a study spanning 16 years, the US researchers tracked the health of 26,902 male health professionals aged 45 to 82 and asked them to complete a series of eating questionnaires.
Altogether 1,572 men had a first-time ‘cardiac event’ during the period, according to the study reported in the medical journal Circulation.
Men who skipped breakfast were found to have a 27 per cent higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than breakfast eaters.
Even after accounting for modest differences in lifestyle, the link persisted.
The men who did not eat breakfast were younger than those who did, and were more likely to be smokers, employed full-time, unmarried, less physically active and to drink more alcohol.
Men who ate after going to bed had a 55 per cent higher coronary heart disease risk than those who didn’t, but it was a small minority of the total.
Lead researcher Leah Cahill, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said: ‘Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time.’
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘In the morning rush it can be all too easy to skip breakfast, but this study suggests this could have a bigger impact on our health than we might think.’
Men who skipped breakfast were found to have a 27 per cent higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than breakfast eaters (file picture)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2374693/Eating-breakfast-cut-mans-risk-heart-attack-quarter.html#ixzz2ZtSKp2y9
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