Better heart health could also mean a healthier mind.
Researchers found people with good heart health were less likely to develop cognitive impairment, Medpage Today reported.
The findings were found to be true in people of all genders and races.
We did not observe a dose-response pattern; people with intermediate and high levels of cardiovascular health had similar incidence of cognitive impairment," they wrote. "This suggests that even when high cardiovascular health is not achieved, intermediate levels ... are preferable to low cardiovascular health."
We did not observe a dose-response pattern; people with intermediate and high levels of cardiovascular health had similar incidence of cognitive impairment," they wrote. "This suggests that even when high cardiovascular health is not achieved, intermediate levels ... are preferable to low cardiovascular health."
"We did not observe a dose-response pattern; people with intermediate and high levels of cardiovascular health had similar incidence of cognitive impairment," the researchers wrote, MedPage Today reported. "This suggests that even when high cardiovascular health is not achieved, intermediate levels ... are preferable to low cardiovascular health."
"This is an encouraging message for population health promotion," they wrote, "because intermediate cardiovascular health is a more realistic target than ideal cardiovascular health for many individuals."
To make their findings the researchers turned to smoking "Life's Simple 7 Measure," which looks at behaviors including: "diet, physical activity, body mass index" as well as "blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting glucose," MedPage Today reported.
The team found that those with higher "Simple 7" scored did better on "verbal learning, memory, and fluency" tests.
"based on these findings, we hypothesize that the AHA's strategic efforts to improve cardiovascular health from poor to intermediate or higher levels could lead to reductions in cognitive decline, and we believe further research addressing this hypothesis is warranted," the researchers wrote.
