LIFE´S ESSENTIAL 8 - Improving ´Life´s Simple-7´ Guidances for Cardiovascular and Brain Health
SLEEP > New Recommendation Included to Protect your HEART and BRAIN.
Life's Essential 8
Improving ´Life´s Simple-7´ Guidances for Cardiovascular and Brain Health.
SLEEP DURATION is now considered an essential component for IDEAL HEART AND BRAIN HEALTH.
“Life’s Essential 8” Cardiovascular Health Core replaces “Life’s Simple 7”, according to a new Presidential Advisory.
SLEEP: New Added Recommendation in Life´s Essential 8”
Recent Research has shown that SLEEP duration is associated with Cardiovascular Health. The ideal average number of hours of Sleep per night is 7-9 hours Daily for Adults.
Ideal Average Daily Sleep for Children is: For 5y old and youger: 10-16 hrs / for 6-12y: 9-12 hrs/ and for13-18y: 8-10 hrs.
SLEEP Disorders may place you at HIGHER RISK for: Cardiovascular Disease, Cognitive Decline, Dementia/Alzheimer's, Depression, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Obesity.
In the following VIDEO, we can see an excellent and understandable explanation of the New Recommendations to obtain the best Cardiovascular and Brain Health, through the New LIFE´S ESSENTIAL 8.
Dr. Don Lloyd-Jones, President of the American Heart Association, explains in the video, step by step, the new points and features that are added, and how these will improve the previous list (Life's Simple 7).
The components of Life’s Essential 8 include:
Diet (Updated) - Now includes a Dietary Screening Tool
called the Mediterranean Eating Pattern for Americans (MEPA)
Physical Activity
Nicotine Exposure (Updated) - Now includes Vaping and 2nd hand Smoke.
SLEEP HEALTH* (NEW) - Sleep duration is associated with Cardiovascular Health. Measured by average hours of sleep per night, the ideal level is 7-9 hours daily for adults.
Body Mass Index - BMI
Blood Lipids (Updated) - Now using HDL for measures.
Blood Glucose (Updated) - Now optional use of Glucose/ HbA1c
Blood Pressure
THE NEW HEART HEALTH SCORE OF LIFE´S ESSENTIAL 8
Another Major Enhancement is the Tool MY LIFE CHECK added to the new ´Life's Essential 8´ Checklist, which will allow patients/ users to take an Online Self-assessment.
This will allow them to know, how well they are managing all of the Heart & Brain Health care components recommended on the New Life's Essential-8 Checklist.
The Life’s Essential 8 Components can be evaluated by the MY LIFE CHECK Online Tool, which gives users a score of up to 100 points, based on an average of scores obtained for Each Health and Lifestyle Factor, during the questionnaire that users must complete.
The New Tool My Life Check, also indicates in what areas the care should be Improved or Increased, with the recommendations to do so.
According to the First Study using Life’s Essential 8, as the measure for Cardiovascular Health, among more than 23,400 U.S. Adults and Children -Free of Cardiovascular Disease-, the Overall Cardiovascular Health of the U.S. population is Well Below Ideal, with 80% of Adults scoring at a LOW or Moderate level.
This Research mentioned above, represents the First Look at the Cardiovascular Health of the U.S. Population using the AHA's new Life’s Essential 8 scoring algorithm”, said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, who led the study, published in Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association.
The study was conducted using the new MY LIFE CHECK tool, which gave a score of 100/100 points to the Highest or Healthiest Cardiovascular Health possible. Overall scores below 50 indicated “Low” Cardiovascular Health, a score of 50-79 was considered “Moderate”, and scores of 80 and above indicated “High” Cardiovascular Health.
KEY POINTS
These are some of the main data Obtained in the Study:
Life’s Essential 8 aligns with Life’s Simple 7; however, it was more sensitive to differences in Cardiovascular Health among groups of people and individuals.
Results show that 80% of people in the U.S. have Below-optimal Cardiovascular Health.
The average Cardiovascular Health Score based on Life’s Essential 8™ was 64.7/100 for U.S. adults, and 65.5/100 for U.S. children.
Only 19.6% of U.S. Adults had High Cardiovascular Health; 62.5% had Moderate, and 17.9% had Low.
Cardiovascular Health scores were generally Lower at Older Ages.
Children’s Diet scores were Low, at an average of 40.6/100.
In general, U.S. Adults scored the Lowest in the areas of Diet, Physical Activity, and BMI.
Research showed Adult Sociodemographic Groups varied notably in Cardiovascular Health Scores for Diet, Nicotine Exposure, Blood Glucose, and Blood Pressure.
The study also found that Life's Essential 8" was more sensitive than "Life's Simple 7". In addition, overall, the Cardiovascular Health of the U.S. population showed Suboptimal, with important Differences across Age and Sociodemographic Groups.
Sources »
You can see the Tool MY LIFE CHECK at My Life Check > https://mlc.heart.org/
“Life’s Essential 8: Updating and Enhancing the American Heart Association’s Construct of Cardiovascular Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association.” https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001078
“American Heart Association adds Sleep to Cardiovascular Health Checklist”. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/american-heart-association-adds-sleep-to-cardiovascular-health-checklist