Cardiovascular Atlas
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Heart-healthy living

NHLBI's heart-healthy living pages explain how to understand your risk of heart disease and what steps lower it. Its topics are knowing your risk, having blood pressure and cholesterol checked, choosing heart-healthy foods, aiming for a healthy weight, being physically active, managing stress, quitting smoking and sleeping well, with a section for children. NHLBI describes heart disease as one of the leading causes of death for US men and women. This page records NHLBI's list of topics; it does not measure how much each step helps.

Also called Heart healthy living

  • Care topic
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

Scope page, not a clinical statement. The NHLBI pages are cite-only because their reuse terms were not read, so the atlas states their topics in its own words and quotes nothing. MedlinePlus is cited for the general statement that regular exercise lowers the risk of many long-term diseases. Related records in this atlas hold the evidence behind individual steps: DASH eating plan, Mediterranean diet, physical inactivity, cardiac rehabilitation.

Scope

Everyday steps for heart health as the NHLBI heart-healthy living pages list them: understanding your risk, blood pressure and cholesterol checks, heart-healthy foods, a healthy weight, regular physical activity, stress, quitting smoking and sleep. The page does not state an age group for adults; it has a separate section for children that this atlas does not cover.

Life stages

None stated

Care setting
Not reported

Claims and evidence

Context General public reading the NHLBI heart-healthy living pages

Recipient
Recipient not specified
Population
People who want to lower their chance of heart disease. The pages do not define an age range for adults; they have a separate section for children that this atlas does not cover.
Care setting
Self-directed health information on a web page.
Geography
United States (the page speaks of the United States).
Life stage
Not stated in the source for adults; children have a separate section
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Not stated in the source.
Eligibility: inclusion criteria not stated; exclusion criteria not stated
Included
None stated
Excluded
None stated

  • Description Guidance Certainty not assessed

    NHLBI describes heart disease as one of the leading causes of death for US men and women, and presents heart-healthy living as knowing your risk, choosing healthier habits and acting to cut the chance of heart disease. Its topic pages cover understanding your risk, having blood pressure and cholesterol checked, choosing heart-healthy foods, aiming for a healthy weight, being physically active, managing stress, quitting smoking and getting enough good-quality sleep, and it has a separate section for children.

    Applies to Recipient not specified
    • People who want to lower their chance of heart disease. The pages do not define an age range for adults; they have a separate section for children that this atlas does not cover.
    • Self-directed health information on a web page.
    • United States (the page speaks of the United States).
    • Not stated in the source for adults; children have a separate section
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not stated in the source.
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    This describes the contents of a cite-only web page in the atlas's own words. It gives no effect sizes and does not show how much each step helps. The page for adults does not state an age group.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (2)

    1. Supports Heart-Healthy Living: What Is Heart-Healthy Living? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page states it was last updated on April 23, 2024.

      Locator
      What Is Heart-Healthy Living?, paragraphs 1 and 2
      How it applies
      The NHLBI description of heart-healthy living.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      f01f8eb9f030fe749d5a70d1eb09305b2261b3635575c3bce1bd5a79fb133586
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, but its page-level reuse terms were not read, so the terms are unverified. Only the hash of the page is kept. Public text is cite_only until the integration owner confirms the terms.

    2. Supports Heart-Healthy Living: What Is Heart-Healthy Living? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page states it was last updated on April 23, 2024.

      Locator
      Topic menu
      How it applies
      The list of topic pages.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      f01f8eb9f030fe749d5a70d1eb09305b2261b3635575c3bce1bd5a79fb133586
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, but its page-level reuse terms were not read, so the terms are unverified. Only the hash of the page is kept. Public text is cite_only until the integration owner confirms the terms.

Record details

Record id
cardio:heart-healthy-living
Content hash
c6aeecdbc2457ae828f0382f75375da2a883d2f8e5173669ed22b9c30efd320d