Live a decade longer by following these five healthy habits, claims study

Eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy body weight, exercising regularly, avoiding smoking during adulthood and not consuming alcohol may prolong your life expectancy by over a decade, a US study has claimed.

The study which was published in the journal Circulation has suggested that following these five healthy habits might prove to be beneficial for people.

According to a research led by Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, women and men in United States, who maintained the healthiest lifestyles were 82 per cent less likely to suffer death due to cardiovascular disease and 65 per cent less likely to die from cancer, when compared to the people who have least healthy lifestyles over the course of a 30-year study period.       

It was the first comprehensive analysis of the effect of adopting the low-risk lifestyle habits on the life expectancy in United States.

The research team analysed 27 years of data from 44,354 men and 34 years of data from 78,865 women.

The team conducted a detail observation at how the five low-risk factors affected a person’s mortality.

For undertaking the study, the researchers estimated that life expectancy at age 50 for men and women who didn’t adopt any low-risk lifestyle factors were 25.5 years and 29 years respectively.       

In case of those who adopted the five low-risk lifestyle factors, the researchers projected the life expectancy at 50 to be 37.6 years for men and 43.1 years for women.

Women who maintained the healthy lifestyle gained, on an average, 14 years of life, the study suggested. Men who followed the five healthy habits gained, on an average, 12 years of life.

When compared to those who didn’t follow any of the said healthy lifestyle habits, people who maintained all the five were 74 per cent less likely to die during the study period.

(With inputs from agencies)