A comprehensive program designed to induce patients at risk of serious heart and circulatory system diseases to adopt a healthier life style was found to reduce mortality from heart attacks and stroke by 24 percent. These striking results, garnered from a twenty-year study of medium-risk individuals in the Ashkelon area, were presented recently in Jerusalem at the Congress for Prevention Strategies in Cardiovascular Disease by group leader, Prof. J. Reuven Viskoper of Ben-Gurion University and Barzilai University Medical Center.
Some twenty years ago, Prof. Viskoper and his colleagues started screening residents in the Ashkelon region for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Out of some 12,000 patients examined, between 1980 and 1990, 1200 individuals agreed to enroll in meetings aimed at helping them achieve a more healthful life style. However, elevated blood pressure in most patients still had to be controlled by pharmaceutical means.
Groups of about 60 at-risk individuals attended weekly or bi-weekly sessions at "Prevention Centers" set up in local community centers and schools. Physicians, psychologists, and dietitians worked with the participants, explaining the advantages of stopping smoking, losing weight, and engaging in regular exercise. In addition, the clinical personnel devised detailed programs for the attendees, which were reviewed at every meeting to evaluate compliance.
"One of the most interesting aspects of this program," notes Viskoper, "was the use of relaxation techniques and biofeedback to reduce blood pressure. We found that taking drugs for blood pressure control could be stopped in 25 percent of the patients attending our Prevention Centers. This was the first controlled study of the successful use of this approach for reducing blood pressure."
Following of the successful results of the Ashkelon study, the Israel Society of Hypertension and the Civic Association for High Blood Pressure Control have decided to support a program for establishing Prevention Centers throughout Israel. For this purpose, teams of doctors and nurses will be trained to apply the risk-reducing protocols developed in the Ashkelon experiment. In addition, an outreach program in 30 primary care clinics will screen populations for blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors and encourage those that could be helped by the program to register. Arabic- and Russian-speaking workers will be trained to interact with people who are more comfortable in these languages.
A comprehensive program designed to induce patients at risk of serious heart and circulatory system diseases to adopt a healthier life style was found to reduce mortality from heart attacks and stroke by 24 percent. These striking results, garnered from a twenty-year study of medium-risk individuals in the Ashkelon area, were presented recently in Jerusalem at the Congress for Prevention Strategies in Cardiovascular Disease by group leader, Prof. J. Reuven Viskoper of Ben-Gurion University and Barzilai University Medical Center.
Some twenty years ago, Prof. Viskoper and his colleagues started screening residents in the Ashkelon region for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Out of some 12,000 patients examined, between 1980 and 1990, 1200 individuals agreed to enroll in meetings aimed at helping them achieve a more healthful life style. However, elevated blood pressure in most patients still had to be controlled by pharmaceutical means.
Groups of about 60 at-risk individuals attended weekly or bi-weekly sessions at "Prevention Centers" set up in local community centers and schools. Physicians, psychologists, and dietitians worked with the participants, explaining the advantages of stopping smoking, losing weight, and engaging in regular exercise. In addition, the clinical personnel devised detailed programs for the attendees, which were reviewed at every meeting to evaluate compliance.
"One of the most interesting aspects of this program," notes Viskoper, "was the use of relaxation techniques and biofeedback to reduce blood pressure. We found that taking drugs for blood pressure control could be stopped in 25 percent of the patients attending our Prevention Centers. This was the first controlled study of the successful use of this approach for reducing blood pressure."
Following of the successful results of the Ashkelon study, the Israel Society of Hypertension and the Civic Association for High Blood Pressure Control have decided to support a program for establishing Prevention Centers throughout Israel. For this purpose, teams of doctors and nurses will be trained to apply the risk-reducing protocols developed in the Ashkelon experiment. In addition, an outreach program in 30 primary care clinics will screen populations for blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors and encourage those that could be helped by the program to register. Arabic- and Russian-speaking workers will be trained to interact with people who are more comfortable in these languages.
Some twenty years ago, Prof. Viskoper and his colleagues started screening residents in the Ashkelon region for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Out of some 12,000 patients examined, between 1980 and 1990, 1200 individuals agreed to enroll in meetings aimed at helping them achieve a more healthful life style. However, elevated blood pressure in most patients still had to be controlled by pharmaceutical means.
Groups of about 60 at-risk individuals attended weekly or bi-weekly sessions at "Prevention Centers" set up in local community centers and schools. Physicians, psychologists, and dietitians worked with the participants, explaining the advantages of stopping smoking, losing weight, and engaging in regular exercise. In addition, the clinical personnel devised detailed programs for the attendees, which were reviewed at every meeting to evaluate compliance.
"One of the most interesting aspects of this program," notes Viskoper, "was the use of relaxation techniques and biofeedback to reduce blood pressure. We found that taking drugs for blood pressure control could be stopped in 25 percent of the patients attending our Prevention Centers. This was the first controlled study of the successful use of this approach for reducing blood pressure."
Following of the successful results of the Ashkelon study, the Israel Society of Hypertension and the Civic Association for High Blood Pressure Control have decided to support a program for establishing Prevention Centers throughout Israel. For this purpose, teams of doctors and nurses will be trained to apply the risk-reducing protocols developed in the Ashkelon experiment. In addition, an outreach program in 30 primary care clinics will screen populations for blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors and encourage those that could be helped by the program to register. Arabic- and Russian-speaking workers will be trained to interact with people who are more comfortable in these languages.
A comprehensive program designed to induce patients at risk of serious heart and circulatory system diseases to adopt a healthier life style was found to reduce mortality from heart attacks and stroke by 24 percent. These striking results, garnered from a twenty-year study of medium-risk individuals in the Ashkelon area, were presented recently in Jerusalem at the Congress for Prevention Strategies in Cardiovascular Disease by group leader, Prof. J. Reuven Viskoper of Ben-Gurion University and Barzilai University Medical Center.
Some twenty years ago, Prof. Viskoper and his colleagues started screening residents in the Ashkelon region for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and diabetes. Out of some 12,000 patients examined, between 1980 and 1990, 1200 individuals agreed to enroll in meetings aimed at helping them achieve a more healthful life style. However, elevated blood pressure in most patients still had to be controlled by pharmaceutical means.
Groups of about 60 at-risk individuals attended weekly or bi-weekly sessions at "Prevention Centers" set up in local community centers and schools. Physicians, psychologists, and dietitians worked with the participants, explaining the advantages of stopping smoking, losing weight, and engaging in regular exercise. In addition, the clinical personnel devised detailed programs for the attendees, which were reviewed at every meeting to evaluate compliance.
"One of the most interesting aspects of this program," notes Viskoper, "was the use of relaxation techniques and biofeedback to reduce blood pressure. We found that taking drugs for blood pressure control could be stopped in 25 percent of the patients attending our Prevention Centers. This was the first controlled study of the successful use of this approach for reducing blood pressure."
Following of the successful results of the Ashkelon study, the Israel Society of Hypertension and the Civic Association for High Blood Pressure Control have decided to support a program for establishing Prevention Centers throughout Israel. For this purpose, teams of doctors and nurses will be trained to apply the risk-reducing protocols developed in the Ashkelon experiment. In addition, an outreach program in 30 primary care clinics will screen populations for blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors and encourage those that could be helped by the program to register. Arabic- and Russian-speaking workers will be trained to interact with people who are more comfortable in these languages.