In middle-aged people, having risk factors like blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol that are not well-controlled, combined with not following certain healthy habits, including exercise, diet and sleep, are linked to a higher risk of stroke, dementia or depression later in life,. 

The eight cardiovascular and brain health factors, known as the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, are being active, eating better, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, maintaining healthy blood pressure, getting enough sleep, and controlling cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

“Brain health is paramount for the optimal well-being of every person, enabling us to function at our highest level and constantly adapt in the world,” said study author Santiago Clocchiatti-Tuozzo, MD, MHS, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our study found that making these healthy lifestyle choices in middle age can have meaningful impacts on brain health later in life.”

For the study, researchers evaluated data from 316,127 people, with an average age of 56, who were followed over five years.

Researchers analyzed participants’ scores across the eight essential cardiovascular health factors and organized them into three categories: optimal, intermediate, and poor.

Of the total group, 64,474 had optimal scores, 190,919 had intermediate scores, and 60,734 had poor scores.

Researchers then evaluated health records to identify who developed any of the following neurological conditions: stroke, dementia or late-life depression. Poor brain health was defined as developing these conditions during the follow-up years.

1.2% of participants met the definition for poor brain health, with 3,753 conditions. Of those with optimal Life’s Essential Eight scores, 0.7% met the definition of poor brain health, compared to 1.2% with intermediate scores and 1.8% with poor scores.

After adjusting for factors that could affect the risk of these three neurological conditions, such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, researchers found that people with poor scores on the healthy lifestyle factors were more than twice as likely to develop any of the three neurological conditions compared to those people with optimal scores. Researchers also found that people with an intermediate score had a 37% higher risk of having one of the three neurological conditions than those with an optimal score.

“Because the risk factors we looked at are all ones that people can work to improve, our findings highlight the potential benefits of using these eight cardiovascular and brain health factors to guide healthy lifestyle choices,” Clocchiatti-Tuozzo said. “More research is needed to understand this link between lifestyle habits and brain health, as well as how social factors like race and ethnicity can influence this connection.”