Life Essential 8: Focusing on simple lifestyle steps can boost life expectancy by more than ten years

Focusing on eight simple lifestyle habits can boost life expectancy by more than ten years, a major study of Britons has revealed.

Scoring well in ‘Life’s Essential 8’, which include diet, sleep and weight, can slash the risk of death from all causes by more than a fifth, the study of more than 260,000 people in the UK found.

And even achieving a moderate score from ‘everyday tweaks’ is enough to help you live nearly eight years longer than those who perform poorly, it found.

Life’s Essential 8 – a list developed by experts at the American Heart Association – comprise of diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep duration, weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.

To find their rating, patients take a five-minute survey and receive a score of between 0 and 100 for each category, with the average then taken as their overall score.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, analysed data from 264,675 people in the UK Biobank – a biomedical database containing comprehensive genetic, lifestyle and health information from 500,000 UK volunteers – whose health was tracked across an average of nearly 15 years.

For each ten point increase in Life’s Essential 8 score, it was found that the risk of death from all causes fell by 20 per cent.

And healthy patients with the highest cardiovascular health, classed as 80 or more on the Life’s Essential 8 scale, lived an average of 11.63 years longer than those whose heart health was low.

People with moderate scores, if between 50 and 80 on the scale, were projected to live 7.64 years longer than those with scores below 50.

The benefits were also seen in patients with a cardiometabolic condition, such as type-2 diabetes or heart disease.

For the study, participants were assigned scores based on their UK Biobank data. Those with a score below 50 were categorised as having low cardiovascular health, while a score of between 50 and 80 was classed as moderate, and above 80 was rated as high.

A high score is typically achieved by getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night, doing 150 minutes of physical activity per week, never smoking or having quit more than five years ago, and eating a healthy diet.

A moderate score might be given to a slightly overweight person who gets six to seven hours of sleep per night, 30 to 120 minutes moderate activity per week, and has a diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, but also regularly consumes ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

A low score is associated with regularly sleeping less than five hours, smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and a diet high in UPFs.

The study, by researchers at The Third Xiangya Hospital in China, reported that high scores are ‘significantly associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk and increased life expectancy’, regardless of whether an individual has an underlying cardiometabolic condition or not.

The team stated that people with good scores also enjoy more years in good health.

The researchers pointed to a separate analysis of UK Biobank data that found middle-aged people who performed well, enjoyed more years ‘without major chronic diseases (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and dementia)… which suggested that high [cardiovascular health] may not only prolong longevity but also improve the quality of ageing‘.

Focusing on Life’s Essential 8 is ‘a clear pathway for individuals to improve their health and potentially delay ageing’, the researchers reported.

Previous research has found maintaining a good score can also lead to a biological age six years younger than a person’s chronological age, and is associated with ‘decelerated biological ageing’.

Professor Bryan Williams, chief scientific and medical officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘This large-scale study in a UK population clearly shows that prioritising cardiovascular health pays off in terms of increasing healthy life expectancy.

‘Maintaining good cardiovascular health doesn’t just prevent disease, it also slows progression of any established disease, cuts early mortality risk and can add many healthy years to life. 

‘These simple, everyday tweaks you can make to your lifestyle, as well as getting blood pressure and cholesterol checked and treated when needed, can make a real and measurable difference.’