Know Your Numbers

The American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 splits heart health into four habits and four numbers.

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The habits are diet, physical activity, avoiding nicotine, and sleep — with seven to nine hours nightly for most adults.

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The numbers are weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure, and you should know all four by memory.

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Blood pressure categories were tightened in 2017: normal is under 120/80, elevated is 120 to 129 over under 80, stage 1 is 130 to 139 or 80 to 89, and stage 2 is 140 or higher or 90 or higher. Above 180/120 with symptoms is an emergency.

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For cholesterol, lower LDL is better and your target depends on your overall risk, not a universal cutoff. An A1c under 5.7 percent is normal and 5.7 to 6.4 percent is prediabetes.

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The CDC reports nearly half of American adults carry at least one major risk factor — all of them treatable.

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