How to live 14 years longer
2008-01-08 09:28
London - People who drink moderately,
exercise, quit smoking and eat five servings of fruit and
vegetables each day live on average 14 years longer than people
who adopt none of these behaviours, researchers said on Tuesday.
Overwhelming evidence has shown that these things contribute
to healthier and longer lives, but the new study actually
quantified their combined impact, the British team said.
"These results may provide further support for the idea that
even small differences in lifestyle may make a big difference to
health in the population and encourage behaviour change," the
researchers wrote in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Between 1993 and 1997 the researchers questioned 20 000
healthy British men and women about their lifestyles. They also
tested every participant's blood to measure vitamin C intake, an
indicator of how much fruit and vegetables people ate.
Then they assigned the participants - aged 45-79 - a score
of between 0 and four, giving one point for each of the healthy
behaviours.
After allowing for age and other factors that could affect
the likelihood of dying, the researchers determined people with
a score of 0 were four times as likely to have died,
particularly from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers, who tracked deaths among the participants
until 2006, also said a person with a health score of 0 had the
same risk of dying as someone with a health score of four who was
14 years older.
The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was giving up
smoking, which led to an 80% improvement in health, the
study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables.
Moderate drinking and keeping active brought the same
benefits, Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues at the University of
Cambridge and the Medical Research Council said.
"Armed with this information, public-health officials should
now be in a better position to encourage behaviour changes
likely to improve the health of middle-aged and older people,"
the researchers wrote.