The American Heart Association has updated its measures on cardiovascular health. The findings might interest you.
Photo by cloud.shepherd on Flickr used under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and globally. From the latest data from the American heart association: “121.5 million people in the U.S. have high blood pressure, 100 million have obesity, more than 28 million people have Type 2 diabetes, and only 1 in 4 adults reported achieving the physical activity and exercise recommended in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services” (“Sleep is linked to heart health” 2022)
A lot can be said about the state of preventative health care within the United States. This is perhaps a topic for another entry in the blog, but for now, it's worth noting these numbers are very high for something preventable with adequate self-care.
Sleep duration has been added to the list of factors contributing to heart health, through the latest research. Donald Lloyd-jones MD states “sleep impacts overall health, and people who have healthier sleep patterns manage health factors such as weight, blood pressure or risk for Type 2 diabetes more effectively," (“Sleep is linked to heart health” 2022)
The ScienceDaily article goes on to point out that this discovery also comes on the heels of another finding, that: “brain health in relation to cardiovascular health was defined in a 2017 Presidential Advisory.” (“Sleep is linked to heat health” 2022) Simply put, your mental health and stress levels have an impact on heart health.
The American Heart Association’s upgrade to Life's Essential 8™ is the result of “12 years and 2400 scientific papers” on the topic.(“Sleep is linked to heat health” 2022) And the findings break down these 8 areas into 2 Categories. Health Behaviors, like diet and physical activity. The second is Health Factors like body mass index, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and blood pressure.
Sleep Duration, which under the Essential 8 is labeled ad a health behavior. The newly added metric for ideal sleep shows that adults should be getting 7-9 hours for optimal health. 10-16 hours for young children and 9-12 hours for children ages 6-12 years. (Life's Essential 8)
You can find out more about the Essential 8, and even take a brief quiz filling out information about your diet, sleep and exercise then moving into cholesterol, blood pressure and body composition. It scores you based on your answers and can give you insights to your heart health and perhaps how you can improve. (Life’s Essential 8)
What’s interesting to see from this article and the AHA’s findings; is how the body’s ability to stay strong and healthy really has a lot to do with how we lead our lives. The better your mind, sleep, and body are, the better they all are. Put simply it’s the wisdom that always existed. “Respect yourself”. A truly inspirational idea to me…
Please enjoy your 4th of July and best wishes to you all.
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Works Cited.
American Heart Association. "Sleep is linked to heart health." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 June 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220629084034.htm>.
“Life's Essential 8.” Www.heart.org, https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/lifes-essential-8.
Featured Photo by cloud.shepherd under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/people/exnucboy1/