Five healthy habits can extend your lifespan by more than a decade. This is the conclusion of a recent study performed by scientists at the American Harvard University. The scientists wanted to know how much longer people would live, if they lead a healthy lifestyle – and the answer is; more than a decade.
The study is based on health journals and answers from 123.000 voluntary Americans. The participants were asked about their lifestyle choices and by comparing their answers to health journals, the scientists were able to see a dramatic effect of lifestyle on longevity. The scientists followed the participants through 34 years, and within those years, there were 42.167 deaths among the participants; the scientists used the participants’ deaths to examine the effect of healthy habits.
The specific habits are:
The habits that can extend your lifespan by more than a decade, according to the study, include: smoking, alcohol, exercise, weight, and healthy diet. More specifically:
- No smoking
- Maintaining a healthy BMI (between 18.5 and 25)
- Limited alcohol consumption: You shouldn’t drink more than the equivalent of 150 millilitres of wine each day – or approximately one unit of alcohol
- At least half an hour of moderate exercise each day
- Eat healthy: Eat varied, but especially remember to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, wholegrain, and avoid eating too much sugar, red meat, and fatty acids.
If you adhere to the five habits, your expected lifespan from the age of 50 will be 26-38 years if you are a man, and 29-43 if you are a woman. That means men live 12 years longer than expected, whereas women live 14 years longer, if they adhere to these five habits.
Both men and women who follow these habits are at 82 % less risk of dying from heart diseases, while at the same time being 65 % less likely to die from cancer.
The massive correlation surprised the scientists
The motivation behind the study was to discover why the US ranked 31th on the list of countries with the longest life expectancy. The results point to that it is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.
By itself, this is not a revelation that you live longer if you for example don’t smoke and make sure to exercise. However, the scientists were still surprised at the extent to which healthy living affects your lifespan.
“When we started this study, I thought that of course people who follow these habits live longer. However, what is surprising is how important they are,” says Meir Stampfer, one of the main authors behind the study, to the English newspaper The Guardian. He explains that most people are aware of what it takes to live a healthy life, even though a lot still lead an unhealthy lifestyle. “People end up believing that it is too late to change their lifestyle. But when people actually do change, we see noticeable results,” says Meir Stampfer.
