The small changes that can make a big difference to our health

Small changes in our lifestyle—a little more sleep or walking a few extra steps—can all contribute to reducing our chances of a heart attack.

Each lifestyle improvement reduces the risk by 10 percent, and they are things we can all do without too much extra effort, say researchers from the University of Sydney.  They include sleeping for an extra 11 minutes each night, walking an extra five minutes each day, or having an extra serving of vegetables.

The researchers assessed the health and lifestyles of more than 53,000 people for eight years; in that time, round 2,000 suffered a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke.

Those who had the healthiest lifestyles had a 57 percent lower risk of heart attack or stroke, and they were sleeping on average for eight or nine hours each night, and were exercising around 42 minutes a day, and were following a healthy diet.

Lead researcher Nicholas Koemal said: “Combining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health.”

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