New AHA guideline which adds sleep to cardiovascular health checklist

Sleep duration is now considered an essential component for ideal heart and brain health. Life's Essential 8 cardiovascular health score replaces Life's Simple 7, according to a new Presidential Advisory, Life's Essential 8-Updating and Enhancing the American Heart Association's Construct on Cardiovascular Health, published recently in Circulation.

Various research studies over the past two decades indicate more than 80% of all cardiovascular events may be prevented by healthy lifestyle and management of known cardiovascular risk factors.

After 12 years and more than 2,400 scientific papers on the topic, new discoveries in heart and brain health and in the ways to measure cardiovascular health provided an opportunity to revisit each health component in more detail. Four of the original metrics have been redefined for consistency with newer clinical guidelines or compatibility with new measurement tools. Also, the scoring system can now be applied to anyone ages 2 and older.

The Life's Essential 8™ components of optimal cardiovascular health are divided into two major areas – health behaviors and health factors. Health behaviors include diet, physical activity, nicotine  exposure and sleep. Health factors are body mass index, cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood pressure. "The idea of optimal cardiovascular health is important because it gives people positive goals to work toward at any stage of life," said Lloyd-Jones.

Each component of Life's Essential 8™, which is assessed by the My Life Check tool, has an updated scoring system ranging from 0 to 100 points. The overall cardiovascular health score from 0 to 100 points is the average of the scores for each of the 8 health measures. Overall scores below 50 indicate "poor" cardiovascular health, and 50-79 is considered "moderate" cardiovascular health. Scores of 80 and above indicate "high" cardiovascular health. The advisory recommends measuring cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, height and weight at least every five years for the most complete and accurate Life's Essential 8™ score.

The writing group also reviewed data about the impacts of stress, mental health and social determinants of health, such as access to health care, income or education level, and structural racism, which are critical to understanding the foundations of health, particularly among people from  diverse racial and ethnic populations.

Reference:

Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, Norrina B. Allen, Cheryl A.M. Anderson et. al,American Heart Association adds sleep to cardiovascular health checklist, Circulation, 29 Jun 2022https://doi.org/10.1161