My Life Check is an online heart health check from the American Heart Association (AHA). A person answers questions about daily habits and health numbers, and the tool gives a cardiovascular health score out of 100.
The tool was first built on Life’s Simple 7, a list of seven measures the AHA set out in 2010: diet, physical activity, smoking, body weight, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.
In June 2022 the AHA replaced Life’s Simple 7 with Life’s Essential 8. The main change was a new eighth measure, sleep. The AHA set healthy sleep for adults at 7 to 9 hours a night. Other measures changed too. Smoking became nicotine exposure, which counts vaping and secondhand smoke. Cholesterol uses non-HDL cholesterol, which does not need a fasting test. Blood sugar can use hemoglobin A1c. My Life Check now scores the eight Life’s Essential 8 measures. The AHA groups scores below 50 as low, 50 to 79 as moderate, and 80 or above as high.
The current tool and an explanation of each measure are on the AHA Life’s Essential 8 page.
See more tools in the wellness resources list.
Sources
- TCTMD: AHA Revamps Life’s Simple 7, Adding Sleep to Create ‘Essential 8’ (June 29, 2022)
- American Heart Association: Sleep added to American Heart Association’s cardiovascular health checklist (January 31, 2023)
- Harvard Health: The Essential 8: Enhanced advice for a healthy heart (November 1, 2022)
- American Heart Association: Life’s Essential 8