If you can't stand on one foot for a minute, you have company. Here's why you should care. If you are over 50, stop what you are doing right now and take a little test: See if you can stand on one foot for a full minute.

A healthy lifestyle benefits your brain as much as the rest of your body -- and may lessen the risk of cognitive decline (a loss of the ability to think well) as you age, according to a new advisory from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association.

Having the blood vessels of a healthy 20-year-old into one’s 70s is possible but difficult in Western culture, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Hypertension. “For the most part, it’s not genetic factors that stiffen the body’s network of blood vessels during aging. Modifiable lifestyle factors – like those identified in the AHA’s Life’s Simple 7 – are the leading culprits,” said study author Teemu J. Niiranen, M.D., research fellow at Boston University School of Medicine, Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts.