Small tweaks to daily habits such as sleeping for an extra 11 minutes, doing 4.5 additional minutes of brisk walking and eating an extra quarter cup of vegetables can significantly reduce a person’s risk of a heart attack, a study found. Researchers from Australia, Chile and Brazil examined data on more than 53,000 middle-aged UK adults in the UK Biobank database.
Some 2,034 major cardiovascular events occurred among study participants during an eight-year follow-up period. They found that such small “achievable and sustainable” changes could reduce people’s risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, by around 10%.
Dr Nicholas Koemel, lead author and research fellow at the University of Sydney, said: “We show that combining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have a surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health.
“This 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.
“Making 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.”
People with “optimal” lifestyles — including a good diet, eight to nine hours of sleep per night and a minimum of 42 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day — were up to 57% less likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes, the study found.
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.
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, senior author of the study and professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney and Monash University, said: “We plan to build on these findings to develop new digital tools that support people in making positive lifestyle changes and establish sustained healthy habits.
“This 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.”
The findings were published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
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