8 keys to health

A new study to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023, highlights eight healthy habits that can boost your cardiovascular health and help reduce your rate of biological ageing. Although the habits are perhaps unsurprising, the health gains for following them are quite remarkable.

The habits include: abstaining from smoking, engaging in regular physical activity, eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, having healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and keeping blood pressure in the normal range.

To gauge people’s cardiovascular health, the team of researchers looked at how well people followed the eight measures and a score was used to place people in categories of high, moderate, or low cardiovascular health.

For the 6,500 adults who were involved in the study, the researchers found that people with high cardiovascular health were physiologically younger than their age, concluding that those with the highest score were, on average, six years younger in comparison to the people with the lowest scores.