Sticking to Life’s Essential 8 Slashes Cancer Risk, Major Study Shows
A decade-long study of over 48,000 workers reveals that sticking to optimal lifestyle habits dramatically lowers the risk of several major cancers—especially for those with chronic inflammation.
The “Life’s Essential 8” (LE8) is a comprehensive lifestyle assessment tool designed by the American Heart Association to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by improving lifestyle habits.
A team of researchers from China recently assessed the impact of LE8 score trajectories over time on the risk of cancer among individuals working at a Chinese coal mining company. They found promising outcomes in participants with stably elevated LE8 scores. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Background
The “Life’s Essential 8” (LE8) covers eight key lifestyle factors: diet quality, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, body weight, blood glucose, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. LE8-based evaluation and optimization of these factors have been found to significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Since lifestyle habits and risk factors fluctuate over time due to life transitions, health conditions, or aging, a dynamic assessment of lifestyle factors over a long period of time is considered to be a more accurate alternative to single assessments that capture data only at a specific point.
