A BBC health expert has explained the ‘minimum’ amounts of lifestyle changes people can make to make a significant reduction in the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke. Dr Oscar Duke appeared on BBC Morning Live and was explaing to hosts Helen Skelton and Rav Wilding what lay behind reports saying an ‘Extra 11 minutes of sleep each night can reduce heart attack risk.’

The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, examined data on more than 53,000 middle-aged UK adults taking part in the Biobank study. Academics found these small changes could help people avoid major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes.

Dr Duke said: “We really want to find out what is the best thing of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and I’m always talking about studies looking to reduce heart attack and stroke and it might not be a surprise to many people really that this study is looking at a combination of sleep, exercise - moderate to vigorous exercise each day, and nutrition to try and find out what the perfect combination is.

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“It looked at over 53,000 people, followed them for an eight year period, so pretty good period of time to be doing this study for.”

For the biggest impact Dr Duke said that people would have to be very vigorous: “They found a few areas that got the maximum benefit in reducing your heart attack and stroke risk so the combination of eight to nine hours, maybe even nine and a half hours, sleep, 40 to 100 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous exercise - that’s quite a bit - and then obviously really good nutrition.

“That could reduce by up to 57 per cent your risk of having those heart attacks and strokes.” However he added that to make a decent difference people do not have to make such huge changes - and it is worth making even relatively tiny adjustments.

He said: “What’s even more interesting is what is the minimum amount that we can get away with - we always want to know that with our health don’t we. So they found that the combination, just looking at their data, if you slept for an extra 11 minutes, did four more minutes of that moderate to vigorous exercise and had the equivalent of a quarter of a cupful of fresh vegetables more then that potentially could reduce your risk by 10 per cent.

“Interestingly, doing all those three things was a more effective way of reducing it than just doing one of them. For example you’d have to, from their data, sleep for an extra 30 minutes to get the same effect as doing all those three thing I just said with your sleep, your exercise and your nutrition.

“So, look, this data isn’t perfect, but it does reinforce what we know. Good sleep, good levels of exercise and good nutrition will help to reduce our risk of these sorts of conditions.”

The data showed sleeping for 11 minutes more each night, doing 4.5 additional minutes of brisk walking and eating an extra 50g or so of vegetables each day can significantly reduce a person’s risk of heart attack, a study has found. Small behaviour changes were more “achievable and sustainable”, the research team said.

Researchers looked at sleep habits and levels of exercise through data from wearable technology such as smartwatches. People also self-reported on their dietary habits. The researchers found that 2,034 major cardiovascular events occurred during an eight-year follow-up period. They were able to identify the “optimal” way people could avoid these incidents, including a good diet, eight to nine hours sleep each night and a minimum of 42 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. Combining these measures leads to a 57% lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

They also found the “clinically relevant” combination of behaviours that could reduce people’s risk, including more sleep, better diet and more moderate-to-vigorous activity. According to the NHS website, moderate activity can include brisk walking, dancing, pushing a lawnmower, water aerobics and riding a bike. Vigorous activity includes running, swimming, skipping and aerobics.

Dr Nicholas Koemel, the study’s lead author and a research fellow at the University of Sydney, said: “We show that combining small changes in a few areas of our lives can have a surprisingly large positive impact on our cardiovascular health.

“This is very encouraging news because making a few small, combined changes is likely more achievable and sustainable for most people when compared with attempting major changes in a single behaviour.

“Making even modest shifts in our daily routines is likely to have cardiovascular benefits as well as create opportunities for further changes in the long run. I would encourage people not to overlook the importance of making a small change or two to your daily routine, no matter how small they may seem.”

Prof Emmanuel Stamatakis, a senior author of the study and professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney and Monash University, said: “We plan to build on these findings to develop new digital tools that support people in making positive lifestyle changes and establish sustained healthy habits.

“This will involve working closely with community members to make sure the tools are easy to use and can address the barriers we all face in making tweaks to our day-to-day routines.”

Commenting on the study, Emily McGrath, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Many of us want to live healthier lives, but making changes can sometimes feel overwhelming or hard to fit into our busy routines. What’s encouraging about this study is that it shows those changes don’t need to be big to make a difference.

“Small tweaks – like getting a little more sleep, adding a few extra minutes of activity to your day or eating a bit more veg – can work together to have a meaningful positive impact on your heart health. We know that regular movement, good-quality sleep and a balanced diet are all important for our overall wellbeing.

“This research highlights that improving these habits in combination, even in modest ways, can be more achievable and still bring real benefits. The key is aiming for a generally healthy day-to-day lifestyle that you can stick with.”