UK Biobank project reveals how much extra sleep, exercise and vegetables in our diet we need daily, to cut risk of heart problems in middle age
Sleeping for 11 minutes more each night, doing an extra four-and-a-half minute brisk walk and eating quarter cup more of vegetables daily can slash your risk of heart attack, a study shows.
Researchers looked at data on 53,000 middle aged Brits and showed how these small changes can help people avoid “major cardiovascular events” such as heart attacks and strokes by around 10%. Experts insist such small changes are crucial to getting lasting health benefits because people are more likely to stick with them over time.
Scientists analysed detailed health and lifestyle data on participants in the huge UK Biobank project and recorded 2,034 major cardiovascular events over an eight-year follow-up period.
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They were able to identify the “optimal” way people can avoid these incidents including a good diet, eight to nine hours sleep per night and a minimum of 42 minutes or more moderate-to vigorous physical activity each day. Combining these measures leads to a 57% lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Lead researcher Dr Nicholas Koemel, of 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.”
Half a million British volunteers are helping reveal the secrets of human health and why diseases develop. Each has provided around 10,000 forms of information from whole genome sequencing and saliva, blood and urine samples, to regular dietary surveys, cognitive tests, stress levels, FitBit readings and their full medical histories. The largest such project in the world is now revealing unprecedented insights as participants recruited in middle age begin to fall ill and die.
The new study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, using this data is the first to investigate the minimum and optimal combinations of sleep, physical activity, and nutrition necessary for meaningful improvements in the risk of having a major cardiovascular event.
Researchers from Australia, Chile and Brazil used data from a subset of the UK Biobank’s half a million participants, including only adults aged 40 to 69. Sleep and physical activity were recorded using wearable devices and diet was assessed from food questionnaires. Diet scores were higher for those with 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 fizzy drinks.
The “clinically relevant” combination of behaviours people identified to reduce heart risk were – 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.
Poor sleep is known to disrupt appetite hormones, influencing what people eat and making them more likely to overeat. Exercise improves sleep quality but lack of sleep may reduce physical activity due to tiredness. Diet quality affects sleep and also energy levels needed for physical activity.
Co-author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, of the University of Sydney and Monash University, said his team plan to develop digital tools to help people develop healthier habits by addressing “the barriers we all face in making tweaks to our day-to-day routines”.
