Heart healthy habits boost overall body health and longevity

People who had more heart-healthy habits and factors, as assessed by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7™ metrics for ideal cardiovascular health, had more positive benefits for whole body health, according to a review of research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Life’s Simple 7 was launched by the American Heart Association in 2010 to define and quantify the spectrum of heart health based on seven lifestyle and health measures: not smoking, healthy nutrition, regular physical activity, healthy weight and normal blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. In 2022, the metrics were refined to include sufficient sleep and more detailed scoring. The updated cardiovascular health metric is now called Life’s Essential 8™.

While the cardiovascular benefits of optimal cardiovascular health in terms of Life’s Simple 7 were already well-established, this is the first systematic review that examines the benefits to organs beyond the heart and death from cardiovascular disease and other causes, according to study authors.

A few years ago, we learned that heart health and brain health are very closely tied. Through this review, we found that almost every organ system and bodily function also benefits from maintaining the healthy lifestyle behaviors of Life’s Simple 7. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Life’s Simple 7 at optimal levels touched every aspect of health, from head to toe. It goes well beyond just cardiovascular health to encompass whole-body health.”

 Liliana Aguayo, Ph.D., M.P.H., lead study author, research assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta

Researchers reviewed nearly 500 research studies published in the decade after Life’s Simple 7 was introduced that had incorporated at least three of Life’s Simple 7 measures. Ideal cardiovascular health was defined as having six or seven of the metrics at high levels.

Among the findings:

• Ideal cardiovascular health scores were consistently associated with benefits in multiple bodily systems from head to toe and from youth to old age. 
• Numerous studies found that people with high Life’s Simple 7 scores compared to people with low scores were more likely to have maintained their brain and lung function, vision and hearing, and kept their teeth and muscle strength as they aged. Several studies found lower frequencies of several chronic diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, diabetes and kidney disease among those with high Life’s Simple 7 scores.
• Ideal cardiovascular health resulted in low rates of cardiovascular disease over long-term follow-up as well as economic savings from lower health care costs, according to several studies.
• Other research suggested that even people at a higher genetic risk of heart disease can lower their risk of cardiovascular events by maintaining ideal levels of at least three of the Life’s Simple 7 metrics.
• Previous studies found better cardiovascular health at younger ages to be associated with lower risk for later cardiovascular disease and death and better quality of life, even among people aged 85 years old and older.
• One study found that adolescents were nearly 8 times less likely to have poor cardiovascular health when their mothers had better cardiovascular health during pregnancy, suggesting that cardiovascular disease prevention can start even before conception.
• Up to 4% of individuals worldwide have ideal cardiovascular health (7-metrics at ideal levels). Even at younger ages, prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health, is very low.

 “These findings confirm that healthy lifestyle metrics – eating well, exercising and not smoking – are key components to optimal health, in addition to maintaining healthy weight, normal blood pressure, and cholesterol blood sugar levels, which are the conventional risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” Aguayo said.

“The ideal cardiovascular health metrics in Life’s Simple 7 and now Life’s Essential 8 are based on extensive scientific research that recognizes the majority of heart disease and stroke can be prevented,” said Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association and senior vice president of women’s health and executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health of Northwell Health in New York City. “The findings in this review study indicate that these healthy lifestyle metrics are also a path to improving health and well-being across the board, from head to toe. Preventing cardiovascular disease and reducing cardiovascular disease risk, the centerpieces for Life’s Essential 8, are the core of the American Heart Association’s mission to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives.”

The review findings are limited due to the scoring system of Life’s Simple 7, which rates each category broadly as ideal, intermediate or poor and is less precise than is now possible under the methods of Life’s Essential 8, according to Aguayo. Because this study relies on published literature, it may under-represent studies with negative or inconclusive findings, researchers said.

The investigators called for more research especially among children, pregnant women and populations in less-studied areas of the world. Also, more research is needed on both the benefits of even small improvements in these health metrics and the mechanisms that are pathways between Life’s Simple 7 or Life’s Essential 8 and better health.

Study details, background and design:

• Researchers screened 4,624 published research manuscripts that cited the original article introducing Life’s Simple 7 or mentioned several of the Life’s Simple 7 factors for optimal cardiovascular health. Of those, they identified 483 original studies that met study criteria, including low risk of bias, as the final review set.
• Conference abstracts, publications in non-peer-reviewed journals, publications in languages other than English and publications focused on a particular medical condition, such as metabolic syndrome, were excluded from the final review group.
• The research reviewed studies published between January 2010 and January 2021.

This review was partially funded by a Strategically Focused Research Network grant from the American Heart Association as well as a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the American Heart Association.