Adopting eight healthy habits in middle age can extend your life for decades.
A large US study looked at eight key habits of a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking, eating well, sleeping well and managing stress.
They also include being physically active, having positive social relationships with other people, not binge drinking regularly, and avoiding addiction to opioid drugs.
Women with all eight of these habits at age 40 could live an average of 21 years longer than women without any of these habits, one study found.
Men aged 40 with all eight habits, compared to those with zero, could live an average of 24 years longer.
Above are the eight habits that can help you live longer, according to a major study
The findings come from nearly 720,000 U.S. military veterans who completed lifestyle questionnaires and had their medical records analyzed.
The group, aged 40 to 99, was then followed to see who died.
Dr. Xuan-Mai Nguyen, lead author of the study from Carle Illinois College of Medicine, said: “We were really surprised by how much could be gained from applying one, two, three or all eight lifestyle factors.
Our research results suggest that adopting a healthy lifestyle is important for both public health and personal well-being.
“The sooner the better, but even if you make a small change when you’re 40, 50, or 60, it’s still beneficial.”
There were 33,375 human deaths in the study, which allowed researchers to see how much less likely people with each of the eight healthy habits were to die compared to other people.
Overall, the results showed that staying physically active, not smoking, and not being addicted to opioids had the greatest impact on longevity.
These reduced the risk of death by 46 percent for being active, 29 percent for non-smokers and 38 percent for those without an opioid problem, which can occur as a result of addiction to powerful painkillers prescribed for illness.
Minimizing stress, eating a good diet, not being a binge drinker and having good sleeping habits were associated with about a 20 percent reduction in the risk of death.
The smallest effect was seen for people with positive social relationships, but this was linked to an approximately five percent reduction in the risk of death during the study.
Based on the findingspresented at NUTRITION 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, Dr. Nguyen, a scientist for the Million Veteran Program, said: “Healthy lifestyle habits can prevent the root causes of chronic disease, which could help people live longer, into their 80s rather than their 60s.
“It could save the health care system money for medicines and treatments.”
The graph above shows how longevity increased depending on the number of “longevity” factors a study participant had
At age 40, men who lack any of the healthy lifestyle habits can expect to die at age 62 on average.
But those with all eight healthy habits can live to age 86.
Women with none of the healthy habits could expect to live to age 66, but those with all eight could live to an average age of 88.
Having all eight healthy habits was linked to an 87 percent reduction in the risk of dying prematurely.
There was a higher effect on life expectancy for people who had the eight healthy habits at a younger age, but an effect was still seen up to age 60, when the date was analyzed.
Both sexes could expect about 17 to 18 extra years of life if they had all eight good habits by age 60.