Lifestyle Medicine and Cardiovascular Health.

Daily habits and actions exert a profound impact on both the short and long-term health and quality of life. This is particularly true of cardiovascular disease, although it also pertains to virtually all other chronic medical conditions. This is also a fundamental underlying principle of lifestyle medicine. The American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC) have embraced this concept for several decades-most recently with the concept of "cardiovascular health" which is a strategic initiative to lower the risk factors for heart disease from ever occurring. This new initiative adds to the overall agenda for the AHA, in addition to reducing risk factors once they are present and treating cardiovascular disease. The rubric that the AHA has used to define this new initiative on "cardiovascular health" is "Life's Essential 8." The underlying principles of increasing physical activity, improving nutrition (more fruits and vegetables and whole grains), obtaining healthy restorative sleep, having positive relationships with others, reducing the likelihood of overweight and obesity, and treating high blood pressure and lipids are all key components of the initiative on cardiovascular health. These principles also apply equally well to the discipline of lifestyle medicine. This review focuses on the most recent evidence of how lifestyle medicine and cardiovascular health are coming evermore closely aligned with each other.