Cardiovascular Disease-Related Lifestyle Factors and Longevity

Copyright © 2011 Christina Chrysohoou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the developed world. Understanding trends in cardiovascular disease prevalence and identifying factors associated with its development are important, since they provide information to define the burden and the mechanisms of the disease, which is the first step before population-based interventions. This special issue is devoted to highlight lifestyle factors and behaviors associated with the development of cardiovascu-lar disease. According to the World Health Organization, sedentary lifestyle, smoking habits, and unhealthy dietary habits, are the most important factors associated with the development of cardiac diseases; and the main reason for classifying these factors as the most significant is because they can be prevented. In their paper, G. S. Metsios et al. presented current scientific evidence about the role of passive smoking in the development of cardiovascular disease in children. The authors identified a total of 42 articles (i.e., 30 reviews and 12 observational), and they revealed that passive smoking may be implicated in deteriorating cardiovascular status in children in terms of unfavorable high-density lipoprotein levels and deteriorated vascular function. In another article based on a middle-aged population of the Ikaria island in Greece, C. Chrysohoou et al. reported that short-term depressive symptoms are related to a worse 30-day prognosis of ACS patients; however, this relationship was mediated by Mediterranean diet adherence. It is well known that depression is an independent risk factor for cardiac diseases. Due to a significant increase of the incidence of depression during the past decades, there has been a growing interest regarding the mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis, including the parameter of nutrition. Y. Ma et al. reported that chronic depression is associated with inflammatory response in women, but not in men. Previous studies have also observed the positive relationship between depression and inflammation. It seems that Mediterranean diet, due to its antioxidant role, may mediate the adverse effect of depression on cardiac system; the majority of studies suggest the beneficial effects of omega-3 PUFAs, a main constituent of Mediterranean diet, in the treatment of clinical depression, with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) being more effective than docosahexaenoic (DHA). Another lifestyle factor that has received much attention concerning the prevention of cardiovascular …