Research shows that habits from youth have a big impact on heart health later in life
According to the study, those with high LE8 scores as young adults tended to maintain good heart health
Acquiring some heart-healthy habits at an early age can dramatically reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke later in life.
While this is often repeated as a general rule, a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open shows exactly how decisions made at a young age are linked to cardiovascular health later in life, Healthline reports.
The study followed more than 4,200 participants aged 18 to 30 for nearly 40 years. The researchers found that heart-healthy patterns are established very early on, with most participants developing habits by age 25 that remain stable throughout their lives.
The American Heart Association’s (AHA) Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) scoring system was used to assess overall heart health, which includes factors such as diet, exercise, sleep quality, smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Habits from youth predict future
The results were clear; those with high LE8 scores in youth tended to maintain good heart health, while those with low scores continued to decline.
These differences had real-world consequences. People with poor cardiovascular health early in life had up to a tenfold increased risk of developing heart disease later in life.
“The original goal of the study was to understand how we go from healthy young adults to people in middle age who develop risk factors,” explained Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, a cardiologist and lead author of the study.
He said what they found was that if they had a high score, they tended to maintain it. And the worse they were at the beginning, the more they tended to decline over time.