Everyone wants to live the best life possible, right? Buy organic products, check nutrition labels, take 10,000 steps a day (good news, new research shows you may not need that many steps), meditate, get 9 hours of sleep, as an adult. A box that responsible Americans can check?
If it's easier to narrow down the aspects of your health that can actually extend your lifespan, new research suggests that you should focus on eight different behaviors to truly extend your lifespan.
Published in January 2024 issue American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this study utilized data from the Department of Veterans Affairs Million Veterans Program to assess the impact of eight factors on the longevity of more than 275,000 veterans. This large-scale effort will collect health indicators and behaviors and examine the impact of disease within the veteran population over time.
The eight lifestyle factors come from the concept of “lifestyle medicine,” which focuses on making healthy changes to prevent chronic diseases rather than treating them after the fact. The habits that researchers have identified as most promoting longevity are:
- healthy eating
- stress management
- moderate exercise
- healthy sleep patterns
- improve social connections
- Avoid smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and opioid use.
They found that while adopting some of these habits can extend your lifespan, adopting all eight is even more beneficial and doubles the effect.
More specifically, the study suggests that, starting at age 40, people who prioritize all eight can live on average more than 20 years longer than those who adopt none. The study found that men and women who adhere to all eight can live long into their 80s, while those who ignore them can live well into their 80s. They were expected to reach their mid-60s. Each of the lifestyle factors employed is thought to add several more years of lifespan, so even someone who is focused on 4 or 5 years can expect to add more than 10 years to her lifespan. Masu.
And at age 50, those who incorporated all eight factors increased their life expectancy by 18 to 20 years. By age 60, this increase translates into an additional 16 to 18 years of life expectancy.
The researchers say these findings are very noteworthy because “to our knowledge, no study has evaluated all factors in conjunction with life expectancy.”
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Ideally, you'll want to prioritize all eight metrics, but focusing on just a few of these healthy changes can have significant benefits. Increased physical activity, quitting smoking, and adopting a healthy diet consisting primarily of plant-based, whole foods were found to have the greatest impact on longevity.
If you find it difficult to improve all eight dimensions, remember that even small changes now can yield big benefits later. The researchers concluded, “The continued and gradual increase in life expectancy associated with increases in low-risk lifestyle factors suggests that lifestyle modifications toward the introduction of low-risk factors may confer some benefit.'' “This suggests that the more concentrated the effect, the better.”
