Middle-aged people with health risks such as uncontrolled blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol, along with unhealthy habits like poor diet, lack of exercise, and inadequate sleep, are at a higher risk of stroke, dementia, or depression later in life, according to a new study.
The findings of the study are published in the online issue of Neurology^®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These results do not prove that not having healthy habits increases the risk of these conditions, they only show an association (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Life’s Essential 8 and Poor Brain Health Outcomes in Middle-Aged Adults

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Life’s Essential 8 for Better Heart and Brain Health

The eight cardiovascular and brain health factors, known as the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 are: being active; eating better; maintaining a healthy weight; not smoking; maintaining a healthy blood pressure; getting enough sleep; and controlling cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Follow Healthy Lifestyle Habits Today for Better Brain Health Tomorrow

“Brain health is paramount for the optimal well-being of every person, enabling us to function at our highest level and constantly adapt in the world,” said study author Santiago Clocchiatti-Tuozzo, MD, MHS, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our study found that making these healthy lifestyle choices in middle age can have meaningful impacts on brain health later in life.”

For the study, researchers evaluated data from 316,127 people with an average age of 56. They were followed over five years.

Researchers looked at participants’ scores across the eight essential cardiovascular health factors and organized them into three categories: optimal, intermediate and poor.

Of the total group, 64,474 people had optimal scores, 190,919 people had intermediate scores and 60,734 people had poor scores.

Researchers then evaluated health records to identify who developed any of the following neurological conditions: stroke, dementia or late-life depression. Poor brain health was defined as the development of any of these conditions during the follow up years.

A total of 1.2% of participants met the definition for poor brain health, with a total of 3,753 conditions. Of those with optimal Life’s Essential 8 scores, 0.7% met the definition for poor brain health, compared to 1.2% of those with intermediate scores and 1.8% of those with poor scores.

For Better Brain Health: Say ‘No’ to Unhealthy Lifestyle Choices

After adjusting for factors that could affect the risk of these three neurological conditions, such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, researchers found that people with poor scores on the healthy lifestyle factors were more than twice as likely to develop any of the three neurological conditions compared to those people with optimal scores. Researchers also found that people who had an intermediate score had a 37% higher risk of having one of the three neurological conditions than those who had an optimal score.

“Because the risk factors we looked at are all ones that people can work to improve, our findings highlight the potential brain health benefits of using these eight cardiovascular and brain health factors to guide healthy lifestyle choices,” Clocchiatti-Tuozzo said. “More research is needed to understand this link between lifestyle habits and brain health, as well as how social factors like race and ethnicity can influence this connection.”

To confirm their findings, researchers repeated the study in a group of 68,407 participants followed for a total of five years and found similar results.

A limitation of the study was that the participants’ scores were measured only once at the start of the study, so it does not account for potential lifestyle changes during the five-year study.

References:

1. Life’s Essential 8 and Poor Brain Health Outcomes in Middle-Aged Adults – (https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209990)

Source-Eurekalert