Science Want To Gain Fourteen More Years Of Life?
posted by on January 11 at 12:01 PM
Don’t smoke, drink moderately (1-2 drinks per day), exercise and eat five servings of fruits or vegetables a day.
We examined the prospective relationship between lifestyle and mortality in a prospective population study of 20,244 men and women aged 45–79 y with no known cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline survey in 1993–1997, living in the general community in the United Kingdom, and followed up to 2006. Participants scored one point for each health behaviour: current non-smoking, not physically inactive, moderate alcohol intake (1–14 units a week) and plasma vitamin C >50 mmol/l indicating fruit and vegetable intake of at least five servings a day, for a total score ranging from zero to four. After an average 11 y follow-up, the age-, sex-, body mass–, and social class–adjusted relative risks (95% confidence intervals) for all-cause mortality(1,987 deaths) for men and women who had three, two, one, and zero compared to four health behaviours were respectively, 1.39 (1.21–1.60), 1.95 (1.70–-2.25), 2.52 (2.13–3.00), and 4.04 (2.95–5.54) p < 0.001 trend. The relationships were consistent in subgroups stratified by sex, age, body mass index, and social class, and after excluding deaths within 2 y. The trends were strongest for cardiovascular causes. The mortality risk for those with four compared to zero health behaviours was equivalent to being 14 y younger in chronological age.(Random bolding added by me.)
Like many such (non-interventional) studies, it’s hard to tell exactly how much of this is due to the behaviors measured compared to other unmeasured factors. And it might only apply to pasty UK residents.
Still, it’s a pretty stunning result.
Yeah, who would have ever suspected that not smoking, exercising, and eating fruits and vegetables would have positive health effects? It just goes contrary to everything we've ever been told!
@1 beat me to it.
Yes, but *14* years?
One to four drinks per day?
Can I bundle them and have 28 drinks on the weekend?
Sweet, I can start drinking on the weekdays again! Just gotta eat more veggies now.
A lot riding on the proportional hazards assumption of the Cox model...
i love that immortal picture
Again I say: eat less, move more, stop smoking.
It will probably lower your health-care costs too.
they're not exactly saying it will add 14 years to your life, rather that one's "physical age" is 14 years less than their chronological age, in terms of mortality risk. i.e, if you're 50 your risk of dying of various diseases is equivalent to a 36-year old. this isn't *quite* the same thing.
it's more an indicator of health, not longevity, although those things are obviously interconnected.
In a just world I would be able to make up for less physical activity with more drinking.
The reality is that these key factors, as well as lack of sleep and stress, show up in virtually every longitudinal study done in Medicine.
If moving reduces stress and improves sleep, go for it. If it (more likely) increases stress, than don't. I find packing boxes to be exercise, but not as fun as other ways of getting exercise.
You'll still die by 120 years, anyway, this only extends your life somewhat and improves your operational aspects.
If 1-2 drinks per day is drinking moderately, I wonder if you can save them up and drink 3-7 drinks twice a week.
The Stranger finally gives a healthy nod to black metal...in a science post.
golob gets points.
@12, that works for me.
Only 3 more hours til martini time, thank god.
You asked that already, @12.
No. It's moderate drinking in a social setting. So it's 1-2 drinks a day but if you skip a day you can't save it up.
Of course, if you do 3-4 one or two days a week, it's not really going to hurt much.
Well, except for the hangover.
Shit. I haven't been able to deal with drinking daily since I was 25, and haven't been inclined since I quit the job where I listened to people bitch about their $10,000 cruises all day. Guess I better stock up on good tequila.
It's not a longer life without vices.
It just seems like it.
What's sad/funny about Immortal is that one of the guys is like 38. Also it's funny to picture them drinking a Pepsi or buying Pert shampoo.
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