Hunter-gatherers and horticulturalist lifestyle linked to lower blood pressure increases, atherosclerosis risks

May 21, 2012 Study Highlights:Traditional “hunter-gatherer” and “horticulturalist” populations have significantly lower age-related increases in blood pressure and less risks of atherosclerosis than “modernized” populations.Lifestyle factors of these traditional populations — high physical activity and high fruit and vegetable diets — may protect against normal aging phenomena, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries.EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 pm CT/4 pm ET, Monday, May 21, 2012DALLAS, May 21, 2012 — Hunter-gatherers and forager-horticulturalists who live off the land and grow what they need to survive have lower age-related increases in blood pressure and less risks of atherosclerosis, according to two new studies in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension. High blood pressure and atherosclerosis — a disease in which arteries stiffen and fill with plaque — increase with age in the United States and other countries, raising risks for heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and death. Age-related increases in blood pressure have been observed in almost every population, except among hunters-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists. “Surprisingly, heart disease and stroke aren’t necessarily inevitable with age,” said Michael Gurven, Ph.D., study author and anthropology professor and chairman of the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit. Gurven’s team followed 2,296 indigenous adults in 82 Tsimane villages, an area in the tropical lowlands of Bolivia’s Amazon basin. Tsimane are lowland forager-horticulturalists (pop.