Four Healthy Lifestyle Indicators can Equal 14 more Years

Just four healthy lifestyle indicators could determine whether you live an extra fourteen years or not. These lifestyle behaviors include: non-smoking, physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, and eating five servings of fruit or vegetables a day.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council looked at 20,000 men and women, aged 45-79, who filled out a questionnaire about four health behaviors.

The participants, who did not have a health history that included any known cancers, cardiac or circulatory disease, filled out the questionnaire between 1993 and 1997 and were followed until 2006.

Just following one of these behaviors helps, but every step you make to improve your health seems to have an added benefit. Like when you eat grass-fed meats, rather than feedlot raised (did you know that even “organic” meats are from animals raised in feedlots?) Which is why I get ALL of my animal products here.

The benefits were also seen regardless of whether?Ǭ† people were overweight, or what social class they came from. The findings were published Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal.

The study participants were given a score of ‘1′ for each of the positive health behaviors they followed on a regular basis.

Researchers tracked deaths in the study group including deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory disease, up until 2006. People who scored a point in each of the four lifestyle categories were four times less likely to die than those who scored zero in lifestyle behaviors, the research showed.

After they factored in age, the researchers found that participants with zero points were four times more likely to have died over an average period of 11 years than those with four points.

In addition, the study authors concluded that participants with a score of zero had the same risk of dying as someone 14 years older with a score of four. This was independent of body-mass index (BMI) and social class.

While the findings need to be confirmed in other populations and an analysis of how these combined health behaviors affect quality of life is needed, the researchers said the results suggest that these four healthy lifestyle behaviors could markedly improve the health of middle-aged and older people.

The study should convince people that improving their health does not always require extreme changes to their lifestyles.

“This research is an important piece of work which emphasizes how modifying just a few risk factors can add years to your life,” said Dr. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization.

The study is part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), conducted in 10 European countries. EPIC is the largest-ever study of diet and health.

There is strong evidence that individual lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet and physical activity influence health and longevity, but there has been little research into their combined impact, according to background information in a news release about the study.

But because the study only observed people rather than testing specific changes, experts said that it would be impossible to conclude that people who suddenly adopted these healthy behaviors would automatically gain 14 years.

“We can’t say that any one person could gain 14 years by doing these things,” said Armstrong. “The 14 years is an average across the population of what’s theoretically possible.”

Reference:?Ǭ† Journal PLoS Medicine, Jan. 8, 2008 (HealthDay News).