The United States spends the most money on health care per capita (over $12,000), yet has one of the lowest life expectancies (79.1 years) of all developed countries (rank: #46).
Perhaps this is because we focus so much of our effort on treating diseases instead of preventing them in the first place.
While potent life-extending drugs may be on the horizon, there is a lot we can do today to prolong healthy lifespan.
Researchers from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a massive study to determine the impact of healthy habits on life expectancy, drawing upon data from more than 120,000 people over a span of 34 years.
The findings showed that 5 specific healthy lifestyle habits produce significantly longer lives. Meeting the criteria for all 5 of these habits at age 50 correlated with living 14 years longer for women and 12 years longer for men. That would mean over $100 trillion in health-care savings, according to Harvard biologist David Sinclair. Here are the 5 habits:
1. Eating a Healthy Diet
Characterized by eating more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids, and less unhealthy foods like red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat, and sodium.
2. Regular Physical Activity
Doing at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day.
3. Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight
Defined as having a normal body mass index (BMI), which is between 18.5 and 24.9.
4. Not Smoking
Defined as never having smoked.
5. Moderate Alcohol Intake
Measured as between 5–15 grams per day for women and 5–30 grams per day for men. A typical drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol (e.g. 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits).
Based on the data, if you check the box for all 5 of these habits by age 50, you can expect to live to about 93 if you’re a woman and 88 if you’re a man.
Conversely, people with none of these habits are far more likely to die prematurely from cancer or cardiovascular disease.
The more healthy habits people had the better, but anything is better than nothing. The researchers found that just one healthy habit — and it didn’t matter which one — extended life expectancy by 2 years in men and women.
These findings are consistent with previous research. A 2017 study showed that people 50 and older who had a normal weight, never smoked, and drank alcohol in moderation lived on average 7 years longer. And a 2012 large-scale analysis of over 500,000 people found that more than half of premature deaths were due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, inactivity, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, and smoking.
A drug rehab can also help kick this addiction.
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If you want to live as long and healthy a life as possible, don’t wait until you have a disease.
Start incorporating these 5 healthy habits into your life now.
True longevity drugs seem to be coming, but that will only matter if you live long enough to see them.