Exercise was the most important factor, followed by sleep, then diet.<\/p>\n
One person dies every 90 minutes from cardiovascular disease in New Zealand, accounting for near one in three deaths, according to the Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n
Sleeping tips. Photo \/ Heart Foundation<\/p>\n
Lead author Dr Nicholas Koemel said people should not overlook the importance of a change or two to your daily routine \u201cno matter how small they may seem\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have a surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very encouraging news because making a few small, combined changes is likely more achievable and sustainable for most people when compared with attempting major changes in a single behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
The authors noted this was an observational study, so a clinical trial would be needed to establish a concrete relationship between these lifestyle behaviours and cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n
Previous studies have looked at the importance of these factors but have not studied them in concert. Understanding how they work together was key, the study argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, poor sleep disrupts the normal transmission of appetite hormones, influencing what people eat and making them more likely to overeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysical activity improves sleep quality, but lack of sleep may reduce physical activity due to tiredness.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiet quality affects sleep and also energy levels needed for physical activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
A better quality diet involved a higher intake of vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy, whole grains, and vegetable oils and a lower intake of refined grains, processed meats, unprocessed red meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages, said the study.<\/p>\n
The study followed more than 53,000 adults from UK Biobank over an eight\u2011year period using wearable technology and a self-reporting diet questionnaire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exercise was the most important factor, followed by sleep, then diet. One person dies every 90 minutes from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[25235,75722,617,25653,64,63,10868,137633,56112,5393,14827,1298,5946,554,105280,538,41261,137,5232,26582,5660,278786,1294,4016,28852,11617,2286,29510,5391],"class_list":["post-566625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-according","tag-adding","tag-and","tag-attack","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-can","tag-cardiac","tag-changes","tag-could","tag-cut","tag-diet","tag-event","tag-exercise","tag-extra","tag-fitness","tag-five","tag-health","tag-heart","tag-major","tag-minutes","tag-quartercup","tag-risk","tag-sleep","tag-small","tag-stroke","tag-study","tag-vegetables","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}