Recent scientific research has shown that a healthy lifestyle plays an important role in our life expectancy.
What is a healthy lifestyle?
It mainly includes a healthy diet, regular exercise, no smoking, moderate or no alcohol drinking and a healthy body weight.
These things can reduce risks of many chronic diseases and keep us healthy.
Recent research also finds that good lifestyle behaviors may even help us live longer.
In a recent study from University of Michigan, researchers find that people with normal weight who never smoked and drank only in moderation have a life expectancy at age 50 that is 7 years longer than the average American.
These people also can delay disability up to 6 years.
The researchers examined the health data from university’s Health and Retirement Study of Americans age 50 and older that began in 1992.
The research sample in 1998 included nearly 15,000 respondents ages 50–74.
To find the important factors influencing life expectancy and disability, the team defined a low-risk group, in which people never smoked, drank alcohol moderately, and had a normal BMI (18.5 – 19.9).
Then they checked other people’s data.
They found that non-obese people who had quit smoking for 10 years prior to the study and who drank moderately had overall and disability-free life expectancies that were only 1 year shorter than the low-risk group.
Based on the result, the team concluded that quitting smoking, keeping a healthy weight and cut down alcohol drinking are key factors to increase life expectancy and live a healthy life.
The current average life expectancy in the USA is 78 for men and 82 for women. So that 7 years from avoiding bad lifestyle behaviors is about 9% of life length for men and 8% for life length for women.
And if people can delay disability for 6 years, their quality of life will increase a lot. They can enjoy an independent, fulfilling life without worrying about their basic life needs.
This can also improve their mental health by decreasing the risk of depression, anxiety and loneliness.
If people can live a long, healthy life, their families and the society will have much less burden. From a societal perspective, caring for individuals with disability is very costly on time, money and energy.
But if people can keep their weight down, quit smoking, and cut down alcohol drinking, they will be healthier, happier, and they may avoid bad finance situations.
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