如何保护心脏健康——眼见为实 From VOA Learning English , this is the Health & Lifestyle report . When it comes to having a healthy body , seeing may be believing .
Experiments suggest that people who see detailed pictures of their clogged arteries may be more likely to stay healthy than people who do not . The latest experiment was done in Sweden .
Researchers there studied just over 3 , 500 people . These individuals were between 40 and 60 years of age . Each person had at least one risk factor for heart disease , but no signs of the disorder .
The researchers divided these subjects into two groups . One group received what was called usual care – like taking medicine or talking with health care workers about heart disease .
However , the members of the other group got to see pictures of their arteries . Researchers also gave them personalized guidance on why those pictures might be a sign of future health problems .
One year later , the people who saw the images of their own arteries had fewer risk factors for heart disease than those who did not see pictures . The researchers reported their findings in The Lancet .
The lead writer of a report on the study was Ulf Naslund of Umea University . In an email to the Reuters news agency , he explained that the best ways to keep your arteries healthy is to follow a healthy lifestyle .
He said that means do not smoke , drink less alcohol , eat healthy food , exercise and take the right medications to lower cholesterol and high blood pressure . There are plenty of treatments , Naslund noted . That is not the problem .
The problem , he said , is that people do not take steps to improve their condition or take their medicines . That is where the seeing part may help .
Doctors warn that many people think they have healthy hearts but , actually , they do not . Atherosclerosis , or hardening of the arteries , can be a silent killer .
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