Want to Give Your Brain a Boost? Focus on Your Heart Health

Key Takeaways

• Heart attacks, heart failure, and coronary heart disease are all linked to cognitive impairment.
• Addressing your risk for heart problems earlier in life may help reduce your risk of cognitive problems as you age.
• A heart-healthy lifestyle - which includes exercise, enough sleep, no tobacco, and a Mediterranean-style diet - is also good for your brain.

Lifestyle habits that promote heart health can also help reduce your risk of cognitive problems as you age, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) published in the journal Stroke .

"Heart disease and brain health are deeply interconnected, and this relationship is bidirectional," says Fernando Testai, MD, PhD , lead author of the AHA statement and a neurology professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

"Heart diseases can lead to brain injury and, in return, damage to particular areas of the brain (as occurs in stroke) can result in cardiac disorders," Dr. Testai adds. "Thus, by cultivating healthier hearts at a young age, we are protecting the brain, and vice versa."

The new AHA scientific statement reviews the latest research examining the connections between cardiovascular health and brain health - including the risk for dementia , cognitive impairment, or neurological and psychological issues.

How Heart Health Impacts Brain Health

Heart failure , when the heart doesn't pump blood as efficiently as it should, is associated with a 14 to 81 percent higher risk of experiencing cognitive impairment that affects language skills, memory, or executive function, according to the statement.

Atrial fibrillation , or afib, an irregular and often rapid heartbeat, is associated with a 39 percent greater risk of problems with memory or cognition, the statement notes.

People with heart disease are 27 percent more likely to have dementia than individuals with healthy hearts, according to the statement.

After a heart attack, up to half of survivors will experience cognitive decline, per the statement.

"These conditions can cause small blood vessels to stop working properly, cause inflammation, and lead to tiny bleeds in the brain," says Yu Chen, PhD, MPH , a professor and chronic disease epidemiologist at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, who wasn't involved in the new statement.

"All of these issues reduce blood flow and affect brain areas important for thinking and memory," Dr. Chen says.

How to Keep Your Heart and Brain Healthy

The good news is there is plenty you can do to minimize your risk, according to the AHA. There are eight specific things you should focus on. They're all included on the AHA's Life's Essential 8 checklist for a heart-healthy lifestyle that can also benefit your brain.

It scores people on a 100-point scale, with higher average scores across all eight items indicating better cardiovascular health. You can check your score with the AHA's online tool .

These are the things people need to focus on for optimal heart and brain health - and high scores - according to the AHA:

• Diet Closely follow a Mediterranean style eating pattern that includes whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds, and cooking with healthy oils like olive and canola.
• Exercise Aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.

• Tobacco Avoid all forms of nicotine - including e-cigarettes, as well as older forms of smoking like cigarettes and cigars.
• Weight Maintain a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9.
• Cholesterol Instead of focusing on total cholesterol, aim to reduce harmful fats in the blood such as triglycerides and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol .
• Blood Sugar Maintain healthy blood sugar levels, which can be checked with blood tests showing so-called hemoglobin A1C levels, a number that reflects average blood sugar levels over about three months.
• Blood Pressure Try to keep blood pressure below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mmHg).

• Sleep Adults should aim for seven to nine hours a night.

"Heart disease and cognitive impairment share common risk factors like hypertension , obesity , and diabetes , many of which can be prevented through healthy lifestyles - regular exercise, weight control, a low-fat, low-sugar diet, and avoiding smoking," Chen says. "These factors take decades to contribute to heart disease and cognitive decline, so early prevention is key."

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy . We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.

Sources

1. Testai FD et al. Cardiac Contributions to Brain Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Stroke . October 10, 2024.
2. Life's Essential 8. American Heart Association .
3. How to Be More Active. American Heart Association .
4. How to Manage Blood Pressure. American Heart Association .

Meet Our Experts See Our Editorial Policy Meet Our Health Expert Network

Lisa Rapaport

Author

Lisa Rapaport is a journalist with more than 20 years of experience on the health beat as a writer and editor. She holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and spent a year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in dozens of local and national media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, WNYC, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times , Scientific American , San Jose Mercury News , Oakland Tribune , Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, The Sacramento Bee , and The Buffalo News . See full bio See Our Editorial Policy Meet Our Health Expert Network