Via Oregon State University – “Only 2.7 percent of the U.S. adult population achieves all four of some basic behavioral characteristics that researchers say would constitute a “healthy lifestyle” and help protect against cardiovascular disease, a recent study concluded.”

• Reference – see Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics and Their Joint Association With Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers in US Adults, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, May 2016…”Only 2.7% (95% CI, 1.9%-3.4%) of all adults had all 4 healthy lifestyle characteristics. Participants with 3 or compared with 0 healthy lifestyle characteristics had more favorable biomarker levels except for mean arterial blood pressure, fasting glucose, and hemoglobin A1c. Having at least 1 or 2compared with 0 healthy lifestyle characteristics was favorably associated with C-reactive protein, WBCs, HDL-C, total cholesterol, and homocysteine. For HDL-C and total cholesterol, the strongest correlate was body fat percentage. For homocysteine, a healthy diet and not smoking were strong correlates; for WBCs, diet was not a strong correlation…”