Maintaining five healthy habits — eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy body weight, not drinking too much alcohol and not smoking — can add more than a decade to life expectancy during adulthood, according to a new study. Researchers also found that women and men who had the healthiest lifestyles were 82% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and 65% less likely to die from cancer compared to those with the least healthy lifestyles over the course of a year. the period of about 30 years of study.
Harvard researchers looked at 34 years of data from 78,865 women and 27 years of data from 44,354 men, respectively, who participated in a follow-up study. The researchers looked at how five low-risk lifestyle factors — no smoking, low body mass index, at least 30 minutes or more per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, moderate alcohol intake (for example, one glass of wine per day for women, or up to two glasses for women). men), and a healthy diet – can affect mortality.
For study participants who did not consume any of the low-risk lifestyle factors, the researchers estimated that life expectancy at age 50 was 29 years for women and 25.5 years for men. But for those who used all five low-risk factors, life expectancy at age 50 was estimated to be 43.1 years for women and 37.6 years for men. In other words, women who maintained all five healthy habits gained 14 years, and men who did so 12 years, compared to those who had no healthy habits.
Compared to those who followed none of the healthy lifestyle habits, those who followed all five were 74% less likely to die during the study period. The researchers also found that there was a dose-response relationship between each individual healthy lifestyle behavior and a reduced risk of early death, and that the combination of all five healthy behaviors was associated with the most extra years of life.
