Seniors with high blood pressure have been neglecting Life's Essential 8 --which recommends that people eat healthy, exercise, avoid smoking, sleep better, lose excess weight and manage their cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News
Seniors with known heart-related problems aren't doing a very good job taking steps to protect their health, a new study says.
Older folks with high blood pressure, stroke survivors and heart failure patients in the United States all have been neglecting Life's Essential 8 -- a checklist of lifestyle factors that can protect heart health, researchers found.
"On average, participants with one cardiovascular disease had a Life's Essential 8 score 9 points lower than those without cardiovascular disease," lead researcher James Walker, a medical student at Northwestern University in Chicago, said in a news release.
Life's Essential 8 recommends that people eat healthy, exercise, avoid smoking, sleep better, lose excess weight, and manage their cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels, according to the American Heart Association.
