Mixed
Adhering to the American Heart Association's 'Life's Essential 8' cardiovascular health metrics is associated with a significantly reduced risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality in a linear dose-response manner.
To lower your risk of dying from heart disease or other causes, aim for high scores in eight key areas: healthy diet, physical activity, no nicotine, good sleep, healthy weight, normal blood lipids, normal blood glucose, and normal blood pressure. You do not need to be perfect in all areas; even small improvements in any single metric reduce your risk. Prioritize physical activity and quitting nicotine, as these had the largest impact on mortality in this study.
Achieving a higher CVH score according to the new Life’s Essential 8 was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause and CVD-specific mortality.
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort study (n=19,951) with long follow-up (median 7.6 years) and adjustment for multiple covariates, though observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Association of the American Heart Association’s new “Life’s Essential 8” with all-cause and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality: prospective cohort study
Jiahong Sun et al. · BMC Medicine · 2023
DOI 10.1186/s12916-023-02824-8
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