Healthy age black couple. Photo credit: The guardian

People Who Follow These 8 Heart Health Metrics May Live Years Longer

People who strongly adhere to a set of cardiovascular health metrics may live close to a decade longer than those who don’t, new research suggests.

The study, published in Circulation, found people with higher scores for cardiovascular health lived up to nine years longer on average than those with the lowest scores. The scores measure adherence to a set of lifestyle behaviors and health factors developed by the American Heart Association known as Life’s Essential 8. They include:

1. Eating a healthy diet

The AHA advises making smart choices and swaps to build an overall healthy eating style.

• Enjoy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins, skinless poultry, fish and seafood.
• Limit sweetened drinks, alcohol, sodium, red and processed meats, refined carbohydrates like added sugars and processed grain foods, full-fat dairy products, highly processed foods, tropical oils like coconut and palm.
• Avoid trans-fat and partially hydrogenated oils (found in some commercial baked goods and fried foods).

Watching your calories, eating smaller portions, and learning how to read and understand food labels can also help you make healthier choices.

2. Being physically active

Adults should get a weekly total of at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both, spread throughout the week, according to the AHA. People who were most physically active lived 4.6 years longer than those who were least active, according to the study.

Here are the tips for success when it comes to physical activity:

• Set Goals: Set realistic goals and make small, lasting changes to set yourself up for success.
• Keep Going: Once you reach these goals, don’t stop. Gradually increase your activity and intensity to gain even more health benefits.
• Walk More: There are many ways to get active. You may find walking the easiest way to start.
• Stay Active: Not only can it help you feel, think, sleep and live better, staying active also improves overall quality of life. Every active minute counts toward your goal.
• Add It Up: Find ways to move more throughout your daily routine, whether it’s at work, on your commute or at home. Every active minute counts toward your goal.
• Make a Habit: Do something active every day at about the same time so it becomes a regular habit. Put it on your schedule so you’re less likely to miss a day.

3. Not using tobacco products

Quitting smoking dramatically decreases your chances of developing heart disease, lung cancer, etc. Compared to people who smoked the most, those who did not smoke lived 7.4 years longer, according to the study.

The following are tips for success:

• Deal with Urges: Whether physical or mental, learn your triggers and make a plan to address them. Avoid situations that make you want to smoke or use tobacco until you’re confident that you can handle them.
• Get Active: Physical activity can help you manage the stress and cravings when quitting. You’ll feel better, too.
• Handle Stress: Learn other healthy ways to manage the stress of quitting.
• Get Support: A buddy system or support program can help you with some of the common struggles of quitting. 1-800-QuitNow
• Stick with It: Quitting tobacco takes a lot of willpower. Reward yourself when you reach milestones and forgive yourself if you take a step backward. Get back on course as soon as possible to stay on track and kick the habit for good.

4. Getting the right amount of sleep

Poor sleeping habits affects so much of your health including cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and dementia, depression, high blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol and obesity. Those who slept the recommended seven to nine hours per night lived five years longer than those who slept too much or not enough, the study notes.

Here’s how to improve your sleep routine:

• Move it. Charge your device as far away from your bed as possible. Added bonus? The distance may help you feel less overwhelmed in general.
• Dim it. Dim your screen or use a red filter app at night. The bright blue light of most devices can mess with your circadian rhythm and melatonin production.
• Set it. Alarms aren’t just for waking up – set a bedtime alarm to remind you that it’s time to wrap it up for the night.
• Lock it. if you’ve got a scrolling habit you need to kick, try an app-blocking app that makes it impossible to get lost in after-hours emails, social media or gaming.
• Block it. Tell notifications to buzz off if they’re waking you up at night. Put your phone on “do not disturb” mode to block it all out when you’re trying to sleep.

5. Managing your weight

Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight has many benefits, according to AHA.

Here’s how to keep your weight under control:

• Control Portions: Learn about portion sizes and how much you might really be eating.
• Get Active: it less, move more and add intensity to burn more calories and improve your overall health.
• Eat Smart: Eat a healthy diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins like fish and seafood. Limit sugary foods and drinks, red or processed meats, salty foods, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
• Get Help: If you aren’t able to lose weight successfully on your own, talk with your health care professional.

6. Controlling your cholesterol levels

A healthcare professional can measure blood cholesterol and help you understand what the levels mean, however, there are several measures you can take at home keep your levels low:

• Eat Smart: Eat a healthy diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins like fish and seafood. Limit sugary foods and drinks, red or processed meats, salty foods, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
• Move More: Physical activity helps improve cholesterol levels.
• Know Your Fats: The fats you eat can affect your cholesterol levels. Replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats.
• No Nicotine: Smoking lowers good HDL cholesterol. It also raises your risk of heart disease.
• Take Medication as Directed: Your doctor may prescribe statins or other medications to control your cholesterol levels.

7. Controlling your blood glucose

There are two things that can make your blood sugar rise, the AHA notes:

• Glucose: The carbohydrates and sugars in what you eat and drink turns into glucose (sugar) in the stomach and digestive system. Glucose can then enter the bloodstream.
• Insulin: Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas that helps the body’s cells take up glucose from blood and lower blood sugar levels.

Healthcare professionals can take blood glucose readings and provide recommendations. Those with type 2 diabetes will need to monitor their blood sugar levels regularly.

According to the study, those who scored higher for maintaining control of blood glucose lived 4.9 years longer than those with poor blood glucose control.

You can monitor your levels in the following ways:

• Eat Smart: Eat a healthy diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins like fish and seafood. Limit sugary foods and drinks, red or processed meats, salty foods, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
• Move More: Being physically active can lower your risk of developing diabetes and help you manage the disease if you already have it.
• Manage Weight: Stay at a healthy weight to help prevent, delay or manage diabetes.
• No Nicotine: Smoking, vaping, exposure to secondhand smoke or using tobacco can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, many cancers and other chronic diseases. It may also make prediabetes and diabetes harder to manage.

8. Control your blood pressure

Keeping your blood pressure within the recommended range ( less than 120/80 mm Hg) will keep you healthier for longer.

You can keep your blood pressure under control by:

• Eat Smart: Eat a healthy diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, lean animal proteins like fish and seafood. Limit sugary foods and drinks, red or processed meats, salty foods, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods.
• Move More: Physical activity helps control blood pressure, weight and stress levels.
• Manage Weight: If you’re overweight, even a slight weight loss can reduce high blood pressure.
• No Nicotine: Every time you smoke, vape or use tobacco, the nicotine can cause a temporary increase in blood pressure.
• Sleep Well: Short sleep (less than 7 hours) and poor-quality sleep are associated with high blood pressure.

“What this shows us is how important an overall assessment of one’s cardiovascular health is, based on these eight factors,” says Nathan Wong, a professor and director of the Heart Disease Prevention Program in the division of cardiology at the University of California, Irvine. “It’s not just one or two things.”

About 42 percent of the gain in life expectancy was attributable to fewer cardiovascular-related deaths.

But that means nearly 58 percent of life years gained from having a better cardiovascular health profile were not related to cardiovascular disease, according to Wong, who was not involved in the research. “That indicates the impact of maintaining good cardiovascular health extends to other causes of death.”

Wong says the findings should motivate people to better understand their own cardiovascular health risks through annual health exams and the use of online tools, such as the AHA’s My Life Check, which can provide a personalized cardiovascular health score based on Life’s Essential 8. “The consumer can get a good idea of their cardiovascular health from such an assessment and what they can do to improve their cardiovascular health risk,” he shares.

While Life’s Essential 8 includes many key metrics of cardiovascular health, Wong says, future research should look at the extent to which other factors might also play a part.

“Information on psychosocial factors such as stress and depression, as well as on social determinants of health such as access to health care, may also play an important role and modify the impact that the key cardiovascular health metrics have on cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular outcomes,” he notes. “As the study looked exclusively at mortality, effects on non-fatal cardiovascular outcomes should also be examined, given their substantial impact on health care utilization.”

by Jessica Daniels