L ‘American Heart Association It measures the indicators that must be followed for heart health. The latest update to its tracker now includes sleep, among other improvements!
Maintaining a healthy heart depends largely on environmental factors, which are related to our way of life, as well as on biological factors that are difficult to control. L ‘American Heart Association He has created a tool for patients that allows them to estimate their cardiovascular health based on seven historical indicators, and an eighth added recently: sleep.
” New time scale Sleeps Reflects the latest scientific findings: sleep affects overall health, people with a healthy sleep pattern manage weight better, the pressure blood and danger diabetic type 2 ‘, announced the chiefAmerican Heart Association (AHA), and cardiologist Donald M Lloyd-Jones.
In addition to adding dormancy, the tool, Call Life’s Essential 8™And the It has undergone a global update. In fact, the top seven indicators were laid out in 2010. After more than ten years of scientific progress and several thousand studies on cardiovascular health, some of them are out of date. Four of the original indications were reviewed in light of the latest clinical recommendations. The tool gives the patient a score out of 100 after a questionnaire about his habits, and he can benefit from medical follow-up from the age of two years. The eight indicators monitored fall into two groups: behavioral factors – lifestyle – and biological factors.
The Four Habits of Life to Watch for Our Heart
Among the behavioral factors that have been monitored are:
- sleep: Duration It is recommended seven to nine hours for adults, ten to sixteen hours for children under five and eight to twelve hours for children 6 to 18 years old;
- exposure to nicotine : with update including electronic cigarettes. Second-hand smoke exposure is also included;
- Diet: The perfect diet for eyes The AHA is the Mediterranean Diet.
- Physical activity : It is measured by the number of minutes exercised per week. The ideal is 150 minutes (two and a half hours) of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity for adults per week, and 420 minutes (seven hours) for children 6 years of age and older.
The four biological data to monitor our heart
Biological factors include:
- BMI : an incomplete but fairly easy to use indicator;
- blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides): with the update, it now only keeps track of the “bad” ones cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) instead of total cholesterol;
- The Blood sugar ;
- Blood pressure: 120/80 mm Hg is considered optimal.
A tool that is constantly improving
A final score of less than 50/100 indicates poor cardiovascular health, between 50 and 79, cardiovascular health is considered moderate and from 80, cardiovascular health is good. These indicators give a good overview of the patient’s health, but they cannot be exhaustive. L ‘American Heart Association Realizing that social and economic factors have to be taken into account and are still missing from the tool. a Mental health Fragile and limited access to health care, low level of education and racism can be a source of this Stress Which also hurts the heart.
” We carefully considered social determinants in our update and concluded that further research on this component is needed to establish and include their measures in the future. Donald M Lloyd-Jones concludes.
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