A new study points to eight healthy lifestyle habits that may extend your life.
in study Men who adopted all eight habits by middle age lived 24 years longer than those whose lifestyles contained little or no habit, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Nutrition. It turned out that it did. Women who adopted the eight habits lived 23 years longer than those who did not.
The study is based on data from approximately 720,000 US veterans age 40 and older, considered a nationally representative sample. Described by researchers as “therapeutic lifestyle factors,” the eight leading habits are:
Overall, those who adopted all eight were 13 percent less likely to die of any cause during the roughly eight-year study period, and participants’ mortality rates were higher than the number of healthy habits they followed. The researchers said it declined as it increased.
The greatest risk of death was associated with smoking, reduced physical activity, and opioid use. Researchers believe that adopting healthy behaviors such as the 8 Habitslifestyle disease‘ focuses on addressing “the root cause of chronic disease, not the symptoms.”
Lifestyle medicine could also help reduce health care costs, the lead investigator said in a statement released by the American Academy of Nutrition.
This article is part of The Post’s “Big Number” series, which briefly examines the statistical aspects of health problems. Additional information and related research are available via hyperlinks.