Healthy lifestyle for long life
When life was simple in good old days, people used to live a quite long and healthy life. But the lifestyle of people in modern days is so much complicated that it takes toll on their health severely. People are paying the cost of their complex lifestyle sometimes even with many years of their life.
We cannot go back to those good old days again because of drastic changes in our environment, infrastructure, occupations and world. However, if we make a few changes in our lifestyle, we can spend much more healthy years in life. And we won’t be just following this complicated modern-day lifestyle.
Follow healthy lifestyle for long life
People who follow healthy lifestyle are likely to live up to 10 extra disease-free years of life, says a study. The Harvard School of Public Health researchers took the measure of a total of five low-risk lifestyle factors. These were – never smoking, healthy weight, minimum 30 minutes of daily physical activity, moderate alcohol intake, and healthy diet.
The advantages of a healthy lifestyle have been well documented through many researches, said the researchers. However, the study, tried to quantify the number of years in which people can enjoy the benefits of healthy lifestyle.
Add disease-free years to life
The US-based study, published in the British Medical Journal, documented the health of thousands of people for over two decades. The research was based on the data of 73,196 registered female nurses and 38,366 male health professionals. The respondents were free of major disease on their enrollment. The researchers recorded new illness diagnoses and deaths among the respondents over the 20 year period.
On the basis of the data, life expectancy free of disease was measured at age 50. The research examined the life expectancy free of chronic illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Men can enjoy upto 7.6 extra disease-free years of life and women upto 10 more than those who do not adopt low-risk lifestyle factors, said the researchers.
Heavy stress cuts life years
Your life’s longevity depends not only on traditional lifestyle-related risk factors but also on personal factors affecting the quality of life, such as heavy stress, says another study. The research, published in the BMJ Open journal, was based on the data acquired through questionnaires and measurements from men and women aged between 25 and 74 for Finnish National FINRISK Study during 1987-2007.
Earlier researches on life expectancy were mostly based on traditional socio-demographic factors like age, sex and education. This study took into consideration of other personal factors, said researchers from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. According to the study, the biggest causes for shortening of life expectancy in humans were smoking and diabetes.
Adopt good habits for long, healthy life
For a 30-year-old man, life expectancy is shortened by 6.6 years due to smoking and 6.5 years due to diabetes. While heavy stress shortens their life by 2.8 years, lack of exercise shortens it by 2.4 years. In a 30-year-old woman, smoking shortens life by 5.5 years, diabetes by 5.3 years and heavy stress by 2.3 years. Effects of risk factors on older people’s life expectancy were similar but comparatively smaller.
The study also revealed that healthy food habits can increase life expectancy. Eating fruits increases your life by 1.4 years and eating vegetables by 0.9 years. In people of the weakest socio-economic background, the most common life choices that increase mortality rates are smoking, heavy alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise, said the study.
If you are following a healthy and stress-free lifestyle, that includes daily physical activities, healthy food and no bad habits, you will be happy to know that you have a few extra disease-free years in life. However, if you have not been much conscious about your health so far, you still have time to wake up and make crucial changes in your lifestyle.
