A new study on over 700,000 U.S. veterans brings a clear message: Adopting eight healthy habits can add many years to your life.
The habits are simple: stay active, avoid opioid addiction, don’t smoke, manage stress, eat well, avoid binge drinking, maintain good sleep habits, and cultivate positive social relationships.
For men who follow all eight habits from age 40, the study predicts an extra 24 years of life compared to men who don’t follow these habits.
Women adopting all these habits can expect 21 extra years compared to those who don’t.
The Bigger Picture
The study’s lead researcher, Xuan-Mai T. Nguyen, was amazed at the potential gains from adopting these habits.
Nguyen, who is both a health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a medical student at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, believes adopting a healthy lifestyle is important for public health and personal wellness.
It’s never too late to start making changes, even small ones, that can make a significant difference.
Nguyen shared these findings at NUTRITION 2023, an annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.
A Deep Dive into the Study
This research was based on data from the medical records and questionnaires of 719,147 people who participated in the Veterans Affairs “Million Veteran Program” from 2011 to 2019.
The study included adults aged 40 to 99 and accounted for 33,375 deaths during the follow-up period.
The results were enlightening. Low physical activity, opioid use, and smoking had the most substantial impact on life span, with each factor linked to a 30-45% higher risk of death during the study period.
Other factors like stress, binge drinking, poor diet, and poor sleep habits were each linked to around a 20% increase in the risk of death. A lack of positive social relationships increased the risk of death by 5%.
The Benefits of Healthy Choices
The study’s findings highlighted how lifestyle choices can contribute to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, leading to premature disability and death.
But, more importantly, the results also quantified the extent to which making healthy lifestyle choices can reduce the risk of such diseases and increase longevity.
Nguyen emphasized the importance of lifestyle medicine, which focuses on addressing the root causes of chronic diseases rather than just treating symptoms.
This approach provides a potential way to curb growing healthcare costs associated with prescription medicine and surgical procedures.
A Healthier Lifestyle for a Longer Life
The study shows that adopting these eight healthy lifestyle habits can increase life expectancy, even if adopted at an older age.
The gain in life expectancy slightly decreases with age, but the impact remains significant, reinforcing that it’s never too late to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Although the study’s observational nature does not definitively prove causality, its findings align with a growing body of research underscoring the role of lifestyle factors in preventing chronic diseases and promoting healthy aging.
Therefore, the choice is in our hands: adopt these eight simple habits to lead a healthier, longer life.
If you care about wellness, please read studies about exercise that is vital to improving longevity in older people, and this dieting method could help increase longevity.
For more information about wellness, please see recent studies about vaccine that can block COVID-19 and variants, plus other coronaviruses, and results showing this type of exercise may slow down bone aging.
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