Tag: add

8 habits can add 24 years to lifespan, new study finds

Vera
8 habits can add 24 years to lifespan, new study finds
An older person throws both arms in the air in joy while standing in the ocean water on a sunny dayShare on Pinterest
New research suggests that eight simple lifestyle habits can have a significant, positive impact on one’s life expectancy. Raymond Forbes LLC/Stocksy
  • Researchers find that people who adopt eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age could live substantially longer.
  • Some of these habits included having good sleep hygiene and not smoking.
  • Men who adopt all eight habits by age 40 would be predicted to live an average of 24 years longer than men with none of these habits.
  • Women who adopted all eight habits by the age of 40 would be predicted to live an average of 23 years longer than women with none of these habits.

A new observational study identified eight lifestyle habits that—when adopted by midlife—may extend an individual’s lifespan.

The researchers used data from medical records and questionnaires from 719,147 enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program MVP, a health research program centering around more than a million United States veterans that is designed to help researchers study how genes, lifestyles, military experiences, and exposures impact health and wellness.

Xuan-Mai T. Nguyen, a health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs and fourth-year medical student at Carle Illinois College of Medicine in Illinois, presented the study Monday at Nutrition 2023, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Boston, Massachusetts.

The eight identified habits are:

The data used for this study was collected between 2011 and 2019. It featured U.S. veterans between the ages of 40 and 99. Over 30,000 participants died during the follow-up.

“We looked at all-cause mortality in this study using cox proportional hazard regression models and longevity using a multi-lifetable method, calculating the longevity for male veterans and female veterans separately,” Nguyen explained.

Veterans who adopted all eight habits had a 13% reduction in death from any cause compared to those who adopted none of the eight habits.

The study found that men who have adopted all eight habits at the age of 40 would be predicted to live 24 years longer, on average, than men who adopted none of these habits. Women who have adopted all eight habits by age 40 would live 23 years longer on average compared to those who adopted none.

“Take home message: Veterans who commit to a moderate change toward living a healthier lifestyle during middle-age may prolong their life expectancy,” Nguyen stressed to Medical News Today

… Read More

These 8 habits could add up to 24 years to your life, study says

Vera
These 8 habits could add up to 24 years to your life, study says

Editor’s note: Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.



CNN
 — 

Want to live up to an additional 24 years? Just add eight healthy lifestyle choices to your life at age 40 and that could happen, according to a new unpublished study analyzing data on US veterans.

Starting at age 50 instead? No problem, you could prolong your life by up to 21 years, the study found. Age 60? You’ll still gain nearly 18 years if you adopt all eight healthy habits.

“There’s a 20-year period in which you can make these changes, whether you do it gradually or all at once,“ said lead study author Xuan-Mai Nguyen, a health science specialist for the Million Veteran Program at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

“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,” she said. “So, if you start off with chronic diseases, making changes does still help.”

What are these magical healthy habits? Nothing you haven’t heard before: Exercise, eat a healthy diet, reduce stress, sleep well and foster positive social relationships. On the flip side, don’t smoke, don’t drink too much and don’t become addicted to opioids.

“The earlier the better, but even if you only make a small change in your 40s, 50s or 60s, it still is beneficial,” Nguyen said. “This is not out of reach — this is actually something attainable for the general population.”

The study, presented Monday at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, looked at the lifestyle behaviors of nearly 720,000 military veterans between the ages of 40 and 99. All were part of the Million Veteran Program, a longitudinal study designed to investigate the health and wellness of US veterans.

Adding just one healthy behavior to a man’s life at age 40 provided an additional 4.5 years of life, Nguyen said. Adding a second led to seven more years, while adopting three habits prolonged life for men by 8.6 years. As the number of additional lifestyle changes climbed so did the benefits for men, adding up to nearly a quarter century of extra life.

Women saw huge leaps in life span as

… Read More