March 2023 - First Washington News

March 9, 2023

Gu, Neymar, Asher-Smith among Olympians at Paris Fashion Week 2023

Paris 2024 may be in excess of a calendar year absent but that did tiny to end the sporting elite from descending on the city for Paris Trend Week, concluding these days (8 March).

Olympic champions Gu Ailing (Eileen) and Neymar had been among the athletes who attended the 7-day event that invites designers to screen their upcoming collections for the up coming season.

From viewing some of the world’s greatest and most esteemed manufacturers on the catwalk from the front row to even walking the runways as products locate out how Olympians got included in the week’s action.

Just lately topped avenue skateboarding entire world champion Rayssa Leal was a stand-out as she appeared at the start of the new autumn and wintertime collections for Louis Vuitton at the D’Orsay Museum on Monday (6 March).

The 15-yr-previous Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist sat in the entrance row for the show and afterwards appeared in shots with American singer Pharrell Williams, who has a partnership with the legendary manufacturer.

Also appearing at the Louis Vuitton exhibit was Beijing 2022 double Olympic winner Gu Ailing (Eileen) .

Gu, who created her runway debut for the brand name previous calendar year, has frequently spoken about her solid connection to trend.

Past calendar year, the freestyle skier manufactured her next overall look at the Satisfied Gala a fundraising gain for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in which invitees are inspired to dress according to the preferred topic.

Tennis superstar Venus Williams designed numerous appearances throughout a variety of shows in Paris demonstrating her adore for all points design.

The 5-time Olympic medallist and 7-time Grand Slam winner appeared on the entrance row for French brand name Chloe, donning a billowing white coat and a black mesh costume. The outfit was the ideal demonstration of her taste in style both on and off the courtroom.

Also attending numerous shows throughout the 7 days was Olympic Somali boxing star Ramla Ali who is nicely recognized for balancing life in the ring with the environment of superior style.

In among sharing her pleasure for her background-creating crew-mates at the Indoor European Championships, athletics star Dina Asher-Smith produced headlines for her catwalk debut for Virgil Abloh’s Off White.

The 22-yr-aged dash feeling led a forged of Olympic athletes together with Workforce GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Rio 2016 heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam of Belgium and Renelle Lamote of France who all took to the runway to rejoice the get the job done of the designer.

And if there was not ample sporting glamour on the runway there was loads seeing on.

Olympic football gold medallist Neymar seemed on from the entrance row along with supermodel Cara Delevingne.

March 8, 2023

Dominion lawsuit documents show Rupert Murdoch rejected election conspiracy theories

New York
CNN
—

A trove of text messages, emails, and other material from Fox News executives and on-air personalities were made public Tuesday as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the right-wing channel.

Among the the hundreds of pages of previously unreleased documents include repeated statements from Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch rejecting conspiracy theories about Dominion that his own network promoted after the 2020 election. And Internal Fox News emails and messages — also made public Tuesday — further show how Fox News’ staff privately dismissed some of the election conspiracies that were promoted on-air.

Dominion has alleged in its lawsuit that during the 2020 presidential election the right-wing talk channel “recklessly disregarded the truth” and pushed various pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theories about the election technology company because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.”

In a statement Tuesday, Fox News accused Dominion of distortions, misinformation and misattributing quotes as part of an attempt to “smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”

Dominion on Tuesday said, “the emails, texts, and deposition testimony speak for themselves.”

“We welcome all scrutiny of our evidence because it all leads to the same place — Fox knowingly spread lies causing enormous damage to an American company,” Dominion said.

Months after the 2020 presidential election, and two days before the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Tucker Carlson wrote in a text message that he hated then-President Donald Trump “passionately,” according to the newly released court documents.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson wrote on Jan 4, 2021, the filings show. “I truly can’t wait.”

“I hate him passionately,” the Fox host continued. “I blew up at Peter Navarro today in frustration. I actually like Peter. But I can’t handle much more of this.”

“That’s the last four years,” Carlson added. “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.”

The text messages reveal that Carlson was harshly critical of Trump in private despite regularly expressing support for the former president on his Fox News primetime show and suggesting the 2020 election could have been stolen from him.

“He was pushing voting fraud stuff. I have no doubt there was fraud. But at this point, Trump and Lin and Powell have so discredited their own case, and the rest of us to some extent, that it’s infuriating. Absolutely enrages me,” Carlson wrote.

Days later, on Jan. 6, 2021, Carlson wrote in a text message to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer that Trump was “a demonic force, a destroyer.”

“But he’s not going to destroy us,” Carlson wrote.

In one Nov. 11, 2020 text message exchange, Carlson said Trump’s decision to snub Biden’s inauguration was “hard to believe. So destructive.”

Carlson added that Trump’s post-election behavior was “disgusting. I’m trying to look away.”

In a January deposition, Murdoch rejected conspiracy theories about Dominion, according to a transcript of his deposition released Tuesday.

“Do you believe that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” Murdoch was asked by Dominion lawyers.

“No,” Murdoch replied.

“Have you ever seen any credible evidence to suggest that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” the Dominion lawyer pressed.

“No,” Murdoch replied.

“Have you ever believed that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” the Dominion lawyer asked.

“No,” Murdoch replied.

“You’ve never believed that Dominion was involved in an effort to delegitimize and destroy votes for Donald Trump, correct?” the Dominion lawyer asked.

“I’m open to persuasion; but, no, I’ve never seen it,” Murdoch replied.

The hundreds of pages of new documents that came out Tuesday include previously unreleased excerpts from key depositions, including Murdoch, and are part of Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News.

Fox News denies wrongdoing and says the judge should resolve the case in favor before it even goes to trial, which is scheduled for next month in Delaware.

In messages from November 2020, then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs asked producer John Fawcett what he thought of a recent lawsuit Sidney Powell filed attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

“It’s complete bs,” Fawcett responded, according to court filings made public Tuesday. “I can’t believe that was the kraken,” he added, referring to the phrase Powell used to describe the meritless suits she filed across the country.

Dobbs was one of the most notorious on-air promoters of Powell’s conspiracy theories related to Dominion and the 2020 election before his show was canceled in February 2021.

Additionally, shortly after the 2020 election, Fox News host Tucker Carlson acknowledged that Powell wasn’t telling the truth.

According to a court filing released Tuesday, Carlson told an unknown number on November 17, 2020, that “Sidney Powell is lying” and called her an expletive.

More than a month after the 2020 election, then-Fox News DC Managing Editor Bill Sammon decried the network’s coverage of false election claims in private messages to a colleague, fearing it had become an “existential crisis” for the right-wing channel.

“More than 20 minutes into our flagship evening news broadcast and we’re still focused solely on supposed election fraud – a month after the election,” Sammon wrote to then-political editor Chris Stirewalt. “It’s remarkable how weak ratings makes good journalists do bad things.”

Stirewalt replied, “it’s a real mess.”

The messages were part of hundreds of pages of documents released Tuesday in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News. (The network denies wrongdoing.)

“In my 22 years affiliated with Fox, this is the closest thing I’ve seen to an existential crisis – at least journalistically,” Sammon said.

“What’s most worrisome is that there doesn’t seem to be much conflict,” Stirewalt said.

“What I see us doing is losing the silent majority of viewers as we chase the nuts off a cliff,” Sammon replied.

Both men, Sammon and Stirewalt, departed the company in early 2021.

Murdoch said in a January 2021 email that two of his top TV hosts maybe “went too far,” in an apparent reference to their election denial after Donald Trump lost.

“Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” Murdoch wrote in the email, referring to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. “All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump, but what did he tell his viewers?”

Murdoch sent the email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on January 21, 2021, the first full day of President Joe Biden’s administration. The email also mentioned the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Trump.

In the email, Murdoch asked Scott if it was “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th (was) an important chance to have the result overturned”?

Later, Scott sent the question to Irena Briganti, Fox News’ senior vice president for corporate communications, requesting a specific answer. Briganti responded with more than 15 pages of transcript excerpts from Fox hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

In the final stretch of the 2020 presidential campaign, Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch informally helped the Trump campaign with its TV ad strategy, according to the new filings.

Murdoch prodded Jared Kushner to improve the Trump campaign’s TV ads, the documents show. Murdoch said candidate Joe Biden’s advertisements were “a lot better” than Trump’s, pointed out that Trump’s campaign was “spending less on TV than Biden.”

Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for defamation, previously revealed the existence of the Murdoch-Kushner exchange. But the email itself became public Tuesday, as part of a massive trove of depositions and internal Fox messages.

The email exchange yet again highlights Murdoch’s controversial dual role as a TV news mogul and an informal political adviser to senior Republicans in Washington.

On September 24, 2021, Murdoch texted Kushner: “Know you are spending less on tv than Biden. However my people tell me his advs are a lot better creatively than yours. Just passing by it on.”

Kushner replied: “Should have some new creative out this week. I did a review and like what I’m seeing. I will now be reviewing this every week until the end as the real money is starting to be spent on TV and Digital to move voters universes and turn out the base voters.”

Murdoch responded, “Your adv at 1 pm this Sunday an improvement, but Biden in same football is extremely good. Or I think so! Will send it.” It’s not clear what he was referring to by mentioning football. Dominion claimed in previous filings that Murdoch gave “confidential information” to Kushner by sending him versions of Biden’s paid TV ads that hadn’t publicly aired yet on the network.

Fox and its parent company have denied wrongdoing and say the defamation claims are meritless.

Murdoch lashed out in an email on Nov. 7, 2020, over an imminent projection by Fox News to project that Joe Biden would become the next president.

“CNN declares and FOX coming in minutes,” Murdoch wrote to former New York Post editor-in-chief Col Allan. “I hate our Decision Desk people! And pollsters! Some of the same people I think. Just for the hell of it still praying for Az to prove them wrong!,” he said in reference to Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

In a separate email that same day, Murdoch emailed his son, Lachlan, lamenting: “We should and could have gone first (calling the election for Biden) but at least being second saves us a Trump explosion!”

Lachlan, the Fox Corporation CEO, responded, “I think good to be careful. Especially as we are still somewhat exposed on Arizona.”

Two days later, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott texted Lachlan Murdoch that Fox viewers were “going through the 5 stages of grief” over Trump’s election loss.

“It’s two days after Biden was declared President elect. Viewers going through the 5 stages of grief,” Scott wrote to Lachlan Murdoch, according to court documents. “It’s a question of trust – the AZ was damaging but we will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.”

“Yes. But needs constant rebuilding without any misteps [sic],” Lachlan Murdoch responded, before adding criticism of anchor Neil Cavuto and correspondent Chad Pergram, who are some of the less-partisan personalities at the right-wing network.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed shortly after the 2020 election that the network’s national correspondent called him to apologize for saying there wasn’t voter fraud.

Carlson was referring to Fox News national correspondent Bryan Llenas. Among other things, Llenas had tweeted one day after the election that “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania.” That was off-message with what Donald Trump and many Fox News personalities were claiming about massive election-rigging.

In a text chat with fellow Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, Carlson said on Nov. 13, 2020, that Llenas offered him a personal apology.

“He called me last night to apologize for that,” Carlson said.

Carlson went on to reassure his fellow hosts that “he won’t do that again.”

The Dominion lawsuit is one of two separate cases brought by voting technology companies against Fox News that collectively seek $4.3 billion in damages, posing a serious threat to the highly profitable arm of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Fox News has not only vigorously denied the claims, it has insisted it is “proud” of its 2020 election coverage.

The recent court filings in the Dominion case have offered the most vivid picture to date of the chaos that transpired behind the scenes at Fox News after Trump lost the election.

In one particularly damaging admission revealed in the case last month, Murdoch acknowledged that several Fox News hosts endorsed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“They endorsed,” Murdoch said, referring to Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs.

“Some of our commentators were endorsing it,” he said, when asked about the talk hosts’ on-air positions about the election. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” he added.

In his deposition, Murdoch also acknowledged that it was “wrong” for Carlson to have hosted election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell on his program following the presidential contest.

Fox has defended the actions of its executives and hosts in its own legal filings countering Dominion’s lawsuit, alleging that its hosts’ on-air assertions about election fraud were taken out of context.

“Dominion’s summary judgment motion is flawed from top to bottom and should be rejected in its entirety,” lawyers for Fox News wrote in a filing last month.

And Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, alleged Dominion “has produced zero evidentiary support for its dubious theory that high-level executives at Fox Corporation ‘chose to publish and broadcast’ or played a ‘direct role in the creation and publication’ of false election lies.”

While the First Amendment sets a high bar for defamation cases brought against media outlets, a protection that was reinforced in the landmark 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, legal experts have told CNN that Dominion’s case appeared unusually strong.

“It’s a major blow,” renowned First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams said of Dominion’s evidence presented last month, adding that the “recent revelations certainly put Fox in a more precarious situation” in defending against the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.

Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School, described Dominion’s evidence as a “very strong” case that “clearly lays out the difference between what Fox was saying publicly and what top people at Fox were privately admitting.”

Tushnet said that in her years of practicing and teaching law, she had never seen such damning evidence collected in the pre-trial phase of a defamation suit.

March 8, 2023

White House’s Latest Cybersecurity Strategy Elevates Ransomware Attacks to National Security Threat Status

Ransomware attacks have been upgraded to a national security threat in a new cybersecurity strategy released by the White House. This recognition comes after many ransomware attacks have targeted businesses and governments, resulting in billions of dollars in yearly damages.

According to Aaron Kane, a cybersecurity expert with CTI Technology Chicago IT services, this upgrade is important in combating ransomware attacks. “Ransomware attacks have become more sophisticated and frequent, and it’s clear that they pose a significant threat to national security,” Kane said. “By recognizing them as such, we can take the necessary steps to prevent and respond to these attacks.”

Robert Giannini, CEO of Giaspace, an IT services company in Fort Lauderdale, agrees that this recognition is a positive step forward. “Ransomware attacks have become a major concern for businesses and governments around the world, and it’s important that we take this threat seriously,” Giannini said. “By implementing robust cybersecurity measures and having a data backup and recovery plan in place, we can minimize the impact of these attacks.”

Preventing ransomware attacks requires a multi-faceted approach, including implementing robust cybersecurity measures, educating employees, and having a data backup and recovery plan. Cybersecurity professionals play a critical role in preventing and responding to ransomware attacks by conducting regular security audits, developing and implementing cybersecurity policies and procedures, monitoring networks for suspicious activity, responding quickly to incidents, and training employees on cybersecurity best practices.

As ransomware attacks continue to pose a significant threat to national security, businesses and governments must take the necessary steps to prevent and respond to these attacks. We can combat this growing threat by implementing the appropriate cybersecurity measures and working together.

Recent ransomware attacks on businesses and governments have shown the devastating impact that these attacks can have. In May 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack infected over 200,000 computers in 150 countries, causing billions of dollars in damages. More recently, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack led to fuel shortages in the southeastern United States. The JBS Foods ransomware attack caused a temporary shutdown of the company’s meat processing plants.

The White House’s recognition of ransomware attacks as a national security threat in its new cybersecurity strategy is a significant step in preventing and responding to these attacks. The strategy outlines measures that can be taken to prevent and respond to ransomware attacks, including implementing robust cybersecurity measures, having a data backup and recovery plan in place, and collaborating globally to combat these attacks.

As businesses and governments worldwide continue to face the threat of ransomware attacks, they must take the necessary steps to prevent and respond to these attacks. By implementing the appropriate cybersecurity measures and working together, we can combat this growing threat to national security.

March 8, 2023

Ford creates automated driving tech unit Latitude AI

Ford is generating a wholly owned subsidiary named Latitude AI to investigate and produce automated driving technologies.

Latitude’s formation underscores the automaker’s aim on automated systems that assist human motorists in personally owned cars.

Latitude has its roots in self-driving technological innovation: Its 550-particular person employees will mainly be comprised of the 550 staff Ford hired from Argo AI, the self-driving startup that folded final October.

When Ford pulled its aid from Argo, it claimed it experienced determined to focus on the varieties of automated units that help human drivers alternatively than eliminate their job in the driving course of action.

While there are a lot of specialized similarities concerning the self-driving programs Argo developed and the driver-assistance programs Latitude is tasked with developing, there is a stark, basic difference: 1 was made for no human involvement, a single will integrate human involvement.

Latitude begins with that premise of the latter: the Pittsburgh-dependent organization will focus on acquiring automation classified as SAE Degrees 2 and 3 for up coming-technology Ford vehicles. 1 of its initial tasks will be to build a hands-free, eyes-off-the-road technique, Ford stated Thursday.

“We see automated driving technologies as an opportunity to redefine the romantic relationship concerning people today and their motor vehicles,” Doug Area, chief sophisticated item advancement and technology officer at Ford, explained.

Sammy Omari, govt director of sophisticated driver-guide systems at Ford, will be CEO of Latitude. Peter Carr has been appointed chief technologies officer of the subsidiary, and David Gollob will serve as its president.

Based in Pittsburgh, with other engineering hubs in Palo Alto, California, and Dearborn, Michigan, the 550-member workforce will focus on equipment learning, robotics, application and other underpinnings of assisted driving and conditional automation, Ford said.

The subsidiary’s formation marks an enlargement from the automaker’s ongoing attempts in people parts. Ford previously associates with Mobileye in the innovative driver-assistance realm, and the two have worked alongside one another on Ford’s BlueCruise process, which Consumer Experiences ranked as the very best-available driver aid system on the sector in January.

Drivers presently have gathered more than 50 million miles of fingers-totally free driving making use of BlueCruise, Ford stated Thursday.

By contrast, no self-driving cars are on sale for shoppers these days. Ford CEO Jim Farley explained self-driving vehicles, in which humans have no position in the driving course of action, were “a long way off” when he revealed ideas to stop assist of now-defunct Argo past October.

March 8, 2023

Where Were You for the Big Bang? The Palais Galliera Considers the Pivotal Fashion Year of 1997

In 1995 and 1996, all people claimed that haute couture was finished. It aggravated all people due to the fact a lot of of the collections have been only for consumers. There ended up no far more enjoyable proposals. It was extremely basic. Saint Laurent was manufacturing, but it was really uninteresting for individuals and for the youthful generation in the style industry. They wanted excitement, a renewal. But that spring/summer season is also really essential in heritage for the reason that we witnessed a 30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} enhance in push accreditations, which is excellent. This was the starting of trend in pop tradition. It was demonstrated on CNN, on the news.

There’s the notion of the exception proving the rule. Did you also assume things that had been contrasting or that ended up exceptions?

A good deal! What is exciting is to compare the journalists’ thoughts at the time. We are not fortune tellers. We comment on trend. In some cases men and women skip some thing. We did not fully grasp the extent we didn’t feel it. It’s amusing to see the absence of knowing by journalists, and on the opposite it is incredibly intriguing to see these who underlined that some thing quite, quite really serious, really significant was occurring. For case in point, a journalist with The Guardian at the time of the Versace assassination marked 1997 as the trend turning place for the 21st century. And when I go through that, it gave credit score to my theory.

We choose for granted that Louis Vuitton is a all set-to-use dwelling. But this wasn’t the scenario until 1997.

On January 7, 1997, Marc Jacobs was appointed to Louis Vuitton. The parallel is interesting. Tom Ford had arrived at Gucci, an American in an Italian house, relaunching every thing from scratch. Below an American is appointed to a leather-based-products firm that does not make clothes. As Marc Jacobs will have his to start with present in March 1998, the strategy is to exhibit the techniques, the innovative procedures, the drawings of the initial appears he will current in 1998, and the initial bag, which will be the only bag in the exhibit. He does something very minimalist, and it is exciting to seem at it right now with hindsight.

There is a facet gallery that teams jointly Colette—essentially the birth of the concept store—the iMac, and the Fendi Baguette. What is the importance listed here?

Colette opened on March 18. The iMac was produced in 1997, produced in 1998. The vogue business is the initially to absolutely embrace the online. There was no e-commerce yet, even if you see signals of e-commerce progress. But Colette had its possess internet site from the starting, which it kept developing. Below we incorporate the modem ringtone, which could possibly be a discovery for the youthful generations. March 1997 also marked the release of the Baguette, which went wholly unnoticed at the style clearly show. And it is definitely one thing that will take form afterwards. But it is regarded as the initially It bag in historical past. Its marketing and advertising tactic will be copied by all the makes. It was accessible at Colette, and there was a waiting list. Even if there were being waiting lists for the Hermès Kelly, a phenomenon like this had in no way occurred ahead of. Ladies of all ages required a Baguette. Sex and the Metropolis was shot in June 1997, and it was in the earliest episodes. You see the stars are aligning. It is nevertheless one particular of the very best-selling bags in the earth.

March 7, 2023

Heart-healthy habits linked to longer life without chronic conditions

A woman wearing leggings and workout clothes runs up a staircase in the rain at night — A study found that heart-healthy lifestyle habits described in the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, such as physical activity and quality sleep, are associated with a longer lifespan and more years spent free of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. urbazon/Getty Images

The American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 is a concept that defines cardiovascular health based on four modifiable behaviors, such as physical activity and sleep, and four modifiable biometric measures, such as weight, blood glucose, and blood lipid levels, that impact cardiovascular health.
The composite cardiovascular health score measured using the aforementioned eight metrics can help clinicians measure and monitor cardiovascular health to prevent or treat cardiovascular diseases.
A recent study showed that an optimal composite cardiovascular score based on the Life’s Essential 8 metrics was associated with longer life expectancy free of chronic conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
An accompanying study showed that the decline in deaths due to cardiovascular disease contributed significantly to the increase in life expectancy associated with good cardiovascular health.

Two related studies recently presented at the American Health Association (AHA) conference suggest that optimal cardiovascular health (CVH) was associated with a longer chronic disease-free lifespan, reduced cardiovascular mortality, and increased total longevity.

These studies assessed CVH using the criteria defined by Life’s Essential 8, thus underscoring the validity and utility of cardiovascular health scores based on this construct as predictors of life expectancy and cardiovascular diseases (CVD).

Dr. Hao Ma, a biostatistical analyst at the Tulane University Obesity Research Center and an author of one of the studies, said:

“After decades of strong growth, the rise in US life expectancy has stagnated since 2010. The main reason for such a phenomenon is the poor cardiovascular health in the US population. Our study indicates that adhering to a high CVH, defined as the Life’s Essential 8 score, is related to a considerably increased life expectancy. Moreover, our findings lend support to the validity of the newly released Life’s Essentia 8 metrics in assessment and monitoring CVH in the general populations.”

In 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA) developed a prescription for health called Life’s Simple 7, consisting of seven measurable risk factors or metrics that together represented cardiovascular health. The AHA revised Life’Simple 7 to create Life’s Essential 8 in 2022 to improve the measurement and monitoring of cardiovascular health and facilitate cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment.

The eight metrics comprising the construct, Life’s Essential 8 include physical activity, diet, smoking and other forms of nicotine exposure, sleep, body mass index, blood glucose, blood lipids, and blood pressure. Each metric included in Life’s Essential 8 is measured on a continuous scale of 0-100. These individual metrics are used to calculate the composite or cumulative cardiovascular health score that also ranges from 0 to 100 points.

Although life expectancy has increased in the past few decades, it has been accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular conditions and cancer. The combined effects of the metrics included in Life’s Essential 8 — such as being more active, quitting tobacco use and managing blood pressure — are associated with increased total life expectancy.

However, studies have not examined the association between the composite cardiovascular health score, calculated as defined by the updated Life’s Essential 8, and total life expectancy and disease-free life span.

Two studies recently presented at the AHA conference assessed whether ideal composite cardiovascular health scores were associated with increased life expectancy in the absence of chronic health conditions and reduced mortality due to cardiovascular diseases.

The first study examined whether the cardiovascular health score was associated with an increase in total life expectancy and life expectancy in the absence of chronic conditions.

The study analyzed data collected by the UK Biobank from more than 136,000 adults residing in the United Kingdom who, at the time of enrollment, did not have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, or dementia and had data on cardiovascular health scores.

The individuals were classified as having poor, intermediate, or ideal cardiovascular health based on the criteria defined by Life’s Essential 8. The researchers found that average life expectancy at 50 years of age was prolonged by 5.2 and 6.3 years in men and women with ideal CVH, respectively, compared with their counterparts with poor CVH.

Individuals with ideal CVH scores also had more years of life free of major chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer, than those with poor CVH. Specifically, men and women with ideal CVH were expected to spend 75.9{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 83.4{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, respectively, of their lives in good health, whereas their male and female counterparts with poor CVH were expected to spend 64.9{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 69.4{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of their lives free of chronic disease.

Previous studies have shown that low socioeconomic status is associated with lower disease-free life expectancy. In the present study, researchers found that maintaining ideal cardiovascular health helped reduce the impact of low socioeconomic status on disease-free life expectancy.

The second study examined the impact of maintaining ideal cardiovascular health on potential improvements in life expectancy due to a decrease in cardiovascular deaths. The study analyzed data from 23,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2005 and 2018. Using a national death registry, the researchers determined that 1,359 participants died during the average follow-up period of 7.8 years.

Consistent with the first study, participants with ideal cardiovascular health had longer life expectancies than individuals with poor cardiovascular health. Specifically, the life expectancy of men and women with ideal CVH at 50 years of age was an average of 7.5 years and 8.9 years, respectively, longer than their counterparts with poor CVH.

Notably, 41.8{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 44.1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the increase in life expectancy at 50 years of age in men and women with ideal CVH scores, respectively, could be attributed to a decline in deaths due to cardiovascular disease. Among ethnic groups, the CVH score was also associated with longer life expectancy in White and Black Americans, but not Mexican Americans.

Both studies also had a few limitations. Dr. Ma noted that the data on lifestyle factors such as diet and sleep patterns from the NHANES database were self-reported and hence, prone to errors. Moreover, the metrics used to measure cardiovascular health in both studies were assessed only at baseline, but not during the follow-up period.

Medical News Today also spoke with Dr. Alexandra Lajoie, a noninvasive cardiologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, who was not involved in the study.

“The results of these studies are not surprising. Research continues to show us that healthy lifestyle interventions are good for health outcomes, and often are even more important than prescription medications.”

Dr. Lajoie said it is possible to reverse some of the effects of not living a heart-healthy lifestyle earlier in life, but it’s better to consistently maintain a lifestyle that’s beneficial to one’s health.

“Of course the ideal would be to follow healthy habits from the start, but starting exercise, getting better sleep, and maintaining a healthybody weight improves blood pressure and blood sugar, and consequently reduces cardiovascular event risk, for decades beyond age 50,” she explained. “Quitting smoking is the best [thing] to improve heart health. After that it’s maintaining a regular exercise routine.