Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
Let’s look at a couple of studies that may help us common folk live well at any age. I read a review of a study, published in the Journal of Canadian Cardiology in 2025. The study was an observational study examining risk factors for Sudden Cardiac Arrest. The subjects were drawn from the UK Biobank study. I also read the abstract of the paper as it was not an open access publication.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest is just as it seems. Without warning, a person’s heart stops. Over the13.8 years follow-up period, 3147 people suffered a SCA of the 502,094 persons in the database. The researchers then created a list of 125 modifiable risk factors they felt were associated with SCA in 6 areas of interest: lifestyle, psychosocial factors, local environment, physical measures, socioeconomic status, and early life risk factors.
The researchers found that SCA was associated with 56 risk factors in the previously mentioned areas. Using advanced statistical techniques, they found protective effects associated with 2 factors: higher rates of consumption of champagne and/or white wine and fruit intake. Adverse effects were associated with 7 factors: time spent using the computer, fed-up feelings, greater arm fat mass, arm fat percentage, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and lower education level. The remainder of the risk factors are somewhere in between the highs and lows.
Were there problems with the study? Yes. The people who signed up for the BioBank Study tended to be mostly white, female, well-educated, live in better neighborhoods and are generally older than the mean age. One more thing: they are typically healthier when they sign up. When you hear the following results, keep that in mind because for other demographic groups, the results not be accurate. The SCA may be worse in other groups. Regression analyses, accounting for covariates and other variables statistically is only as good as the data you have collected.
The researchers estimated that a conservative approach to modifying risk factors could lower SCA by 40% while a thorough elimination of risk factors would reduce SCA by 63% While these are all lifestyle related, and SCA is problematic especially if it happens to you, that’s a whole lot of effort in public health and clinical practice no matter whether in the UK, Canada, or the United States.
In the same journal, there was an editorial about the study and comments about SCA in Canada. The number of SCA in Canada are estimated to be about 60,000 per year. In the UK, it’s about 100,000 people per year. In the US, it’s a whopping 250,000 people a year. Let’s think about this a second and put it in percentages of the population. That means that Canada would be 0.15%, in the UK it would be 0.15%, and in the US it would be 0.07% or about ½ the rate of other countries. When looked at this way, it’s a very small percentage of the country’s population.
Let’s turn to a much simpler study, at least in terms of number of variables. Researchers examined data from participants in the SHARE study: The Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. The SHARE dataset is a longitudinal survey conducted on people 50 years and older that live in 15 European countries as well as Israel. I found it interesting because they looked at some countries without large populations like the US and UK. My first thought was that because the physical variables in populations perceived to be more physically active than in the US or UK, might do better. That’s comparison wasn’t part of this study.
Because this is a longitudinal study, the baseline data were collected from the 5th wave of SHARE in 2013. Follow-up information on the participants’ health was provided in subsequent SHARE waves conducted every two years. The criteria variable was whether a person could lift 5 kilos, about 11 pounds, or not. Their reasoning was genius. The 5-kilo threshold was chosen because of its relation to every day products such as a standard bag of sugar or all-purpose flour, an average house cat, an air fryer, a portable slow cooker, and the cast iron Dutch oven—although some Dutch ovens appear to be much heavier than that. It was a practical assessment of strength. Again, genius.
What did the analysis show? The 20% of the subjects in the study who could not lift the weight had an increased risk of the following: an increased risks of a deficient QoL, higher scores on the Euro depression scale, chronic lung diseases, hip fracture, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood cholesterol, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and osteoarthritis irrespective of age and gender. What was not associated with the inability to lift 11 pounds? T2D and cancer.
The lack of functional fitness can result in a lower perceived QoL and with that, depression and a further limiting of what a person will do in response to the aforementioned conditions.
Both of these studies fall into the realm of lifestyle habits that can result in degenerative conditions such as an increased risk of SCA or a reduced QoL and increased risk of degenerative conditions. Going back to the first study, if we were to take the conservative approach and just address lifestyle with diet and exercise public health education, it could cut SCA by 100,000 people per year in the US and most likely the same percentage in other countries. The question is what would that cost in the US, UK, or Canada? One might argue that it doesn’t matter; it should be done.
The problem, as I see it, is that the internet has created an opinion driven healthcare information system. Everyone has an opinion about health, they make it believable, and they post how-to’s for any and all conditions. Public health education is no longer a primary source, nor is the medical community. People are suspicious of the government, Big Pharma, and the medical community. Influencers and gurus are self-proclaimed experts who always want things to go viral. They always have a story that started them on the path to health. What can we do? That’s why I do this podcast, write the things I write, and never vary my message. Without spending dollar one on anything else, we can begin with what I say almost every podcast.
Eat less. Eat better. Move more. Today. No matter you’re age ow what ails you right now. Check with your doctor and abide in any concerns he/she has, then get after it. Time spent in prevention is a whole lot more fun than time spent in recovery.
That’s it for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the like button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
References:
Improving 56 Risk Factors Might Avert 40%-63% of Sudden Cardiac Arrests - Medscape - June 04, 2025.
CJC.. 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cjca.2025.02.027.
CJC. 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cjca.2025.03.019.
Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-03128-y