A major new Harvard study found that you can gain up to 10 years of lifespan, free of cancer, heart problems, and diabetes if you practice five healthy habits.[i]
Researchers released their findings after tracking 111,000 people for up to 34 years.
The scientists found that women can add 10 years of healthy life and men seven.
The life-extending healthy habits are:
- Regular exercise. The study defined this as moderate to vigorous exercising for at least 30 minutes daily.
- Maintaining a healthy body weight. This means keeping a body mass index of 18.5 to 24.9. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your height and weight. For instance, a person who is 5-foot-10 should weigh no more than 174. A person who is 5-foot-4 should be no more than 145. This website will calculate your BMI.
- Eating a healthy diet. See below for a link to learn more.
- Drinking no alcohol or just a moderate amount. That translates to one glass of wine a day for women and one pint of beer a day for men.
- Not smoking.
Women at age 50 who practiced four of the five habits lived another 34 years on average…without cancer, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. That’s a full decade more than women who did not practice any of the healthy habits.
Men at 50 who followed four of the five habits earned 31 years of disease-free life…seven years more than men with none of the habits.
Who fared the worst? Men who smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day and obese men and women. They had the lowest disease-free life expectancy—about 75% as much as the total average.
When people who followed the healthy habits did get a serious illness, they had a better chance of surviving than people who did not have a healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Frank Hu was the study’s lead author. He said that, by sticking to this regimen, people gain “not just more years of life, but good years through improved lifestyle choices.”[ii]
5 Ways to Live a Longer, Healthier Life
Following a healthy lifestyle is easier said than done. We’ve given you strategies to help:
- For the best way to exercise, go HERE.
- For the best way to lose weight, go HERE.
- For the best healthy diet, go HERE.
- To discover the healthiest kind of alcohol, go HERE.
- For the best way to quit smoking, go HERE.
Putting the methods above into practice can help you be active and healthy into your 80s, 90s, and beyond.
Editor’s Note: Discover the most effective natural methods to improve your health. Read our monthly journal Independent Healing. It’s your best source for unbiased, evidence-based medical information you won’t find anywhere else. To find out more, go HERE.
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[i]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1136%2Fbmj.l6669
[ii]https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51036468