The research, which is the first to look at the role of a healthy lifestyle and CHD in men in this age group, is published in the July 3, 2006, online edition of Circulation.

The research team, led by Eric Rimm, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Stephanie Chiuve, research fellow in nutrition at HSPH, did a 16-year follow-up of men aged 40-75 in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a men's health study that began in 1986. The researchers defined healthy lifestyle factors as not smoking, daily exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, a healthy body weight and a healthy diet (based upon the Alternate Healthy Eating Index developed by HSPH, which targets food and nutrients associated with lower risk of chronic disease). The study, which documented 2,183 coronary events, found that men with all five healthy lifestyle factors had a lower risk of CHD compared to men with none of those factors. It also found that 62 percent of coronary events may have been prevented if all men in the study population adhered to all five healthy lifestyle factors; for those men taking medications, 57 percent could have been prevented. Men who adopted two or more low-risk factors during the study period (1986-2002) had a 27 percent lower risk of CHD. Overall, for each healthy lifestyle factor, the authors found an inverse association with CHD risk.

Chiuve says the study shows that middle-aged and older men who adopt a healthy lifestyle, including men taking antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medications, have a lower risk of CHD. "It's never too late to make changes to become healthier," she said.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. Chiuve was supported in part by an institutional training grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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The researchers found that of the 2,335 participants who participated in the five-year follow-up, 158 had developed early AMD and 26 late-stage AMD.

After other risk factors were considered including smoking, age, sex and vitamin C intake, those in the group with the highest intake of polyunsaturated fat had a 50 percent reduced chance of developing early AMD compared with those who ate the least.

No link was found between AMD and consumption of butter, margarine or nuts, which all contain high levels of unsaturated fats but those ate fish at at least once a week reduced their risk of early AMD by as much as 40 percent.

The third study by Mary N. Haan, M.P.H., Dr.P.H., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues studied 4,262 women age 65 years and older who were part of the Women's Health Initiative clinical trial of hormone therapy.

They found that hormone therapy does not appear to increase or decrease the overall risk of AMD among postmenopausal women, although combination hormones may slightly reduce the chances of developing certain risk factors or types of the condition.

The team reached the conclusion that treatment with hormones does not influence the occurrence of early AMD.