It’s never too late to take steps to life a longer and healthier life. A series of lifestyle changes can add decades to your life even if you adopt these healthy habits at the age of 50 or 60 years. A new observational study that covered around 700,000 US veterans aged from 40-99 who were enrolled in the Veterans Affairs’ Million Veteran Program listed simple but effective lifestyle modifications that people can make after the age of 40, 50 or even 60, reported The Guardian. (Also read: Woman becomes world’s oldest living person at 115, shares secrets of her long life)
Xuan-Mai T Nguyen, the lead study author and a health science specialist for the Million Veteran Program at the VA Boston Healthcare System said, “there’s a 20-year period in which you can make these changes, whether you do it gradually or all at once.”
People who are already suffering from chronic diseases need not lose hope as they too can work on increasing their lifespan by making these small changes in their lifestyle.
“We also did an analysis to see if we eliminated people with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke, cancer and the like, does it change the outcome? And it really didn’t,” said Nyuyen, adding, “so, if you start off with chronic diseases, making changes does still help.”
According to The Guardian, the research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Boston and collected data from questionnaires and medical records between 2011 and 2019. Nguyen along with her colleagues analysed the data to find out lifestyle modifications that are linked to a longer lifespan.
Healthy habits that can make you live longer
The habits that can increase longevity do not require any major investment at all, and just need a strong will and mindfulness to change your life for better. A balanced diet with all the required nutrients can control risk factors of chronic diseases or help in their management. Smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol has been associated with many deadly diseases including cancer, lung diseases, liver ailments to name a few. People who actively try to remain active and avoid sedentary lifestyle have more chances of hitting a century than those who are not able to take out time to exercise. Apart from this, managing stress is a crucial factor for remaining healthy as high levels of stress can raise cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood pressure.
Here are the 8 lifestyle changes as per this study that can add decades to your life, as published in The Guardian:
1. Eat well
2. Avoid cigarettes
3. Get a good night’s sleep
4. Be physically active
5. Manage stress
6. Avoid binge drinking
7. Be free from opioid addiction
8. Have positive social relationships.
“Men and women who adopted eight therapeutic lifestyle factors could gain 23.7 or 22.6 years of life expectancy, respectively, at age 40 years compared to those with no adopted lifestyle factors,” wrote the author of the study.
