Poor sleep is now officially a risk factor for heart attacks

MUMBAI: Sleep, or lack of it, is now officially a risk factor for heart disease.
The American Heart Association (AHA), earlier in the week, added sleep to the existing seven factors - physical activity, nicotine exposure, diet, weight, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure - that evaluate a person's risk for heart disease. The new checklist called 'Life's Essential 8' has been published in AHA's peer-reviewed journal 'Circulation'.Essentially, it lays down that it's not just habits like smoking, eating a high-calorie diet, lack of exercise but even duration of sleep that dictates heart health.
Mumbai cardiologist Dr Brian Pinto said, "Over the decades, I've noticed that people who don't sleep for at least seven hours a day are at a higher risk of a heart attack." His stock advice to patients is to sleep more than seven hours but less than eight hours a day.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in most countries, including India. The Global Burden of Disease study a few years back estimated that cardiovascular diseases claimed 272 lives per 1,00,000 population in India while the global average is 235 per 1,00,000 population.
Research has shown that people who get less than six hours of sleep a night are at an increased risk for obesity, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and worse mental and cognitive health.
While releasing Life's Essential 8, AHA president Donald M Lloyd-Jones said, "The new metric of sleep duration reflects the latest research findings: sleep impacts overall health, and people who have healthier sleep patterns manage health factors such as weight, blood pressure or risk for Type 2 diabetes more effectively."
Dr Pinto said just as sleep has been recognised as a key factor for heart health, exposure to noise pollution too will soon make it to the list.