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Live longer and healthier by inculcating these five lifestyle habits

Don’t underestimate the power of a healthy lifestyle. After all, it can help you live longer. These five habits can do wonders.
Exercising regularly is key to healthy and longer life. GIF courtesy: GIPHY
Updated: 10 Jan 2020, 11:58 am IST
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Amidst those long working hours and hectic work schedules, we often tend to ignore healthy lifestyle habits.

Inculcating healthy lifestyle habits in your routine could help you go a long way in enhancing your overall well-being.

A recent study, published in the journal The BMJ, has shed light on the same and found that maintaining five healthy habits may increase years lived free of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

If you’re wondering what those five healthy lifestyle habits are, check out the list below.

  • A healthy diet
  • Regular exercise
  • Healthy body weight
  • Moderate drinking
  • No tobacco

“Previous studies found that following a healthy lifestyle improves life expectancy and reduces risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular ailments and cancer. But few studies looked at the effects of lifestyle factors on life expectancy free from such diseases,” said study author Yanping Li from Harvard University in the US.

“The study provides strong evidence that following a healthy lifestyle can substantially extend the years a person lives disease-free,” Li said.

For the study, the researchers examined 34 years of data from 73,196 women and 28 years of data from 38,366 men participating in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, respectively.

Also read: 5 simple lifestyle changes that helped me achieve work-life balance

Food with high score on the Alternate Healthy Eating Index was defined as healthy diet. Moderate to vigorous exercise accounts to at least 30-minutes a day. A body mass index of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 comes under healthy weight and moderate alcohol intake accounts to up to one serving a day for women and two for men.

Exercising regularly can help you live a healthy life. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

As per the finding of the study, women who practiced four-five healthy habits at age 50 lived an average of 34.4 more years free of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, compared with 23.7 healthy years among women who practiced none.

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On the other hand, men practicing four-five healthy habits at age 50 lived 31.1 years free of chronic disease, compared with 23.5 years among men who practiced none.

“Given the high cost of chronic disease treatment, public policies to promote a healthy lifestyle by improving food and physical environments would help reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of life,” said study senior author Frank Hu.

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