major cardiovascular events<\/a>, including heart attacks and strokes, by about 10%. Small behaviour changes were more \u201cachievable and sustainable\u201d, the research team said.<\/p>\nThe study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, was conducted by experts from Australia, Chile and Brazil who examined data on more than 53,000 middle-aged UK adults taking part in the Biobank study.<\/p>\n
Researchers looked at sleep habits and levels of exercise through data from wearable technology such as smartwatches. People also self-reported on their dietary habits.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 2,034 major cardiovascular events occurred during an eight-year follow-up period. They were able to identify the \u201coptimal\u201d way people could avoid these incidents, including a good diet, eight to nine hours sleep each night and a minimum of 42 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. Combining these measures leads to a 57% lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n
They also found the \u201cclinically relevant\u201d combination of behaviours that could reduce people\u2019s risk, including more sleep, better diet and more moderate-to-vigorous activity. According to the NHS website, moderate activity can include brisk walking, dancing, pushing a lawn mower, water aerobics and riding a bike. Vigorous activity includes running, swimming, skipping and aerobics.<\/p>\n
Dr Nicholas Koemel, the study\u2019s lead author and a research fellow at the University of Sydney, said: \u201cWe show that combining 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking even modest shifts in our daily routines is likely to have cardiovascular benefits as well as create opportunities for further changes in the long run. I would encourage people not to overlook the importance of making a small change or two to your daily routine, no matter how small they may seem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof Emmanuel Stamatakis, a senior author of the study and professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney and Monash University, said: \u201cWe plan to build on these findings to develop new digital tools that support people in making positive lifestyle changes and establish sustained healthy habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will involve working closely with community members to make sure the tools are easy to use and can address the barriers we all face in making tweaks to our day-to-day routines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commenting on the study, Emily McGrath, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: \u201cMany of us want to live healthier lives, but making changes can sometimes feel overwhelming or hard to fit into our busy routines. What\u2019s encouraging about this study is that it shows those changes don\u2019t need to be big to make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall tweaks \u2013 like getting a little more sleep, adding a few extra minutes of activity to your day or eating a bit more veg \u2013 can work together to have a meaningful positive impact on your heart health. We know that regular movement, good-quality sleep and a balanced diet are all important for our overall wellbeing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis research highlights that improving these habits in combination, even in modest ways, can be more achievable and still bring real benefits. The key is aiming for a generally healthy day-to-day lifestyle that you can stick with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sleeping for 11 minutes more each night, doing 4.5 additional minutes of brisk walking and eating an extra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-492381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}