If I told you that just by making a few small changes in your life, you can increase the probability of "living a long life", would you believe it?
1. Is longevity related to a healthy lifestyle?
Since ancient times, mankind's pursuit of longevity has never stopped, and scientists have been exploring the mystery of prolonging life. While genes play a key role in determining longevity, several studies in recent years have found that lifestyle may have a more significant impact on longevity.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce the incidence of many chronic diseases (e.g., type II diabetes, hypertension, etc.), which in turn reduces all-cause mortality.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has a strong emphasis on the importance of lifestyle in people's health and longevity, and its influence is as high as 60%
According to a study published in JAMA, sticking to a healthy lifestyle can increase the probability of becoming a centenarian by about 61%. Researchers have conducted a controlled study of more than 5,000 elderly people (≥ 80 years old) and found that regular moderate exercise can increase the chance of becoming a centenarian by about 31%, people with a balanced diet and a rich diet can increase the probability by 23%, and those who do not smoke can increase the probability by about 25%.
Since the participants in the experiment were all over 80 years old, it also confirmed that no matter how late it is, as long as you change your bad lifestyle, it is beneficial to increase life expectancy.
So if you want to live longer, start by sticking to these three healthy lifestyles.
2. Adhere to 3 healthy lifestyles for longer life
Healthy lifestyle 1: Exercise regularly and moderately
We often say that life lies in exercise, and reasonable exercise not only helps to build a toned body, but also reduces the risk of morbidity and mortality from a variety of diseases (such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer), but it can also relax people, relieve anxiety, further reduce the risk of all-cause mortality, and extend life expectancy.
The Lancet published a 15-year-old study covering 80,000 people on exercise health and delved into the relationship between exercise and health.
Among them, tennis, badminton and other types of sports can reduce all-cause mortality by about half.
If you want to do well in this kind of sports, hand-eye coordination, explosiveness, concentration, endurance and the ability to cooperate with teammates are very high, mobilize the muscle groups of the whole body and also need the brain to be in an active state, which helps to improve cardiopulmonary and nervous function, reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and cognitive impairment.
The study also found that people who regularly engaged in such activities had about half the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to people who did not exercise much.
Exercises such as backstroke and breaststroke can reduce all-cause mortality by about 28 percent.
As an aerobic exercise that can mobilize the participation of multiple organs of the whole body, it can not only improve the body's immunity and enhance disease resistance, but also help to improve blood circulation, enhance myocardial function, and reduce the probability of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
At the same time, this kind of exercise needs to constantly do stretching, flexion and stretching, etc., which can make the joints and ligaments flexible, and the speed and endurance of the muscles can be improved accordingly. Especially for middle-aged and elderly people, such activities have less pressure on the knee joint, spine and other areas, reducing the possibility of injury.
Then there are some indoor aerobic exercises such as yoga and dance, which can reduce all-cause mortality by about 27 percent.
This kind of exercise can increase the contraction strength and lung capacity of the heart, promote blood circulation, improve endurance and physical strength, enhance the immune system, help the body resist various diseases (such as high blood lipids, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, etc.), and mainly carried out indoors can be affected by outdoor weather and environment, suitable for people of all ages.
Of course, there is also a simple and easy exercise - walking, walking for 25 minutes a day can extend life expectancy by about seven years, especially brisk walking (men: 90~130 steps/min, women: 80~120 steps/min).
In a 10-year follow-up trial, researchers found that those who walked slowly had a mortality rate of about 77 percent, those who walked slowly and those who did not walk fast or slow had a mortality rate of about 50 percent, and those who walked fast had a mortality rate of about 27 percent; And compared with people who walk fast, people who walk slowly are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.
Walking speed is not only related to muscle strength, bone and joint health, and heart and brain function, but also related to the ability to do aerobic exercise for long periods of time, and it is more accurate in predicting the probability of death than traditional indicators such as blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar.
Studies have found that walking 1.6 kilometers in 20 minutes a day has significant benefits in the prevention and treatment of a variety of cancers (such as breast cancer, bowel cancer, etc.), and can reduce the risk of death by up to about half.
Brisk walking is a safe and efficient aerobic exercise, especially suitable for the elderly and patients with chronic diseases. When walking briskly, it's important to maintain a moderate pace, which is a good way to make you feel slightly gasping but still be able to talk comfortably.
For healthy people, it is recommended to walk 10,000 steps a day, while those who are losing weight can appropriately increase the number of steps, and the elderly or those who are not in good physical condition can appropriately reduce it according to their own conditions.
Of course, although exercise is good, everything is in moderation, and if you want to get the most out of your body, you should pay special attention to the time of exercise.
A two-decade analysis of data published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that there is a curve between exercise time and health. People who exercise 156min~270min per week can reduce the risk of death by about two-fifths; However, people who exercised 600 minutes a week had an increased risk of death.
In other words, it is equivalent to about 30 minutes of exercise every day.
However, moderate exercise at any time of the day can reduce mortality to some extent.
However, according to a related study published in Nature Communications, compared with 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 12 p.m., participants who exercised between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. had about 28% less cardiovascular disease mortality and about 11% less all-cause mortality, so you can choose to exercise during this time period as much as possible.
In addition to the above-mentioned long-term exercise, we usually do some short strenuous exercise (such as chasing buses, climbing stairs quickly, etc.) for some reasons, which may only take a minute or two, but it is also this short period of strenuous exercise that can significantly reduce the incidence of cancer.
The study found that at least 3.5 minutes of such exercise per day reduced the incidence of cancer by about one-fifth compared to people who did not exercise, and that when the duration of such exercise reached 4.5 minutes per day, the incidence of cancer was reduced by about one-third.
Healthy Lifestyle 2: Maintain a varied diet
We often say that illness comes from the mouth, and Western fast food and processed foods are becoming more and more popular, and they usually contain a lot of sugar, finely processed carbohydrates, saturated fats and animal proteins, which can take a toll on our bodies and even affect our longevity in the long run.
A large number of studies have confirmed that many underlying diseases (such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, high blood sugar, etc.) are related to unhealthy eating habits. A study published in Nature Food increased life expectancy by more than a decade by changing participants' diets from typical Western-style fast food to an optimized diet with dietary diversity.
The researchers found that eating a diet high in whole grains, fish and white meat, as well as milk and dairy products, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes; and reducing your intake of refined grains, red meat, processed meats, and sugary beverages are most beneficial for longer life.
Maintaining dietary diversity can provide the human body with more balanced nutrition, meet the body's demand for various trace elements, and reduce the risk of various chronic diseases.
Therefore, in our daily diet, we should eat more whole grains (whole grains and legumes, 50g-150g), which helps prevent cardiovascular diseases; Eat more fruits and vegetables (250g of fruits, 300g-500g of vegetables) to ensure that there are enough vegetables and fruits at each meal to provide rich nutrients;
Prioritize white meat (e.g. fish, shrimp, chicken, etc.) and reduce the intake of red meat (pork, lamb, etc.); Eat more soybean products (such as tofu, dried tofu, soy milk, etc., soybean content ≥ 25g), rich in plant protein;
Moderate intake of nuts (walnut kernels, hazelnuts, etc., 10g) can provide rich nutrients; and drink plenty of milk and dairy products to supplement calcium.
Here I want to talk about the intake of staple foods, some people may have realized that the white rice, steamed bread and so on we often eat are fine staple foods, which are high-carbohydrate foods, and excessive intake is extremely harmful to the body.
Especially for middle-aged and elderly people with diabetes, some people may choose not to eat staple foods at all, but in fact, this will also shorten their life expectancy.
If you don't eat staple foods for a long time, your body can't get enough carbohydrates, so in order to keep your blood sugar stable, you will convert protein and fat into energy.
This will lead to a series of metabolic disorders, such as breaking down fat to produce ketone accumulation, breaking down protein to cause malnutrition, and also affecting the nervous system, causing depression or irritability.
A study published in Lancet Public Health found that there was a U-shaped relationship between the intake of refined carbohydrates (staple foods) and the risk of death, with either too much (≥70%) or too little (≤40%) of staple foods increasing the risk of all-cause mortality.
Therefore, the staple food can neither be eaten too much nor too little, and the key to longevity is to eat right.
Compared to refined grains, whole grain foods are not refined and retain more dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals such as calcium, iron, and a variety of phytochemicals, making them healthier choices.
It is recommended that healthy people can add 1/3~1/2 of coarse grains (sorghum, oats, buckwheat, etc.) to the daily staple food, and for the elderly with reduced digestion and chewing function, they can be appropriately reduced according to their personal conditions, and in order to prevent irritation of the gastrointestinal tract, they can also choose to eat less and eat more often.
And we need to pay attention not only to the choice of food, but also to the way of cooking and eating habits.
The daily cooking oil should be controlled within 30 grams, avoid high-temperature frying, and you can choose quick stir-frying, stewing, steaming, boiling and other cooking methods to retain the original taste and nutrition of food to the greatest extent.
Sour sauces such as vinegar and lemon juice can be used to replace some salt and soy sauce, which not only helps to control salt intake, but also improves the taste of food.
Long-term excessive eating will not only lead to obesity, increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, gallstones, etc., but also increase the burden on the kidneys, affect brain function, and make people feel sleepy and unresponsive, so we should learn to control the amount of food we eat, eat one or two less bites per meal, or stop eating immediately when we feel full, so as to avoid the harm caused by excessive eating.
Healthy lifestyle 3: Stay away from tobacco
Smoking is harmful to health, and the harm of tobacco to human health is well known.
It contains thousands of chemicals, including a variety of clear carcinogens (such as smoke tar, nicotine, arsenic, cyanide, etc.), which will cause varying degrees of damage to the human body's respiratory tract, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, nervous system, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys and other organs.
It increases the risk of the occurrence and development of various cancers such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, myocardial infarction, type II diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, lung cancer, gastric cancer, etc., and shortens life expectancy.
Studies have shown that smoking even within a year can have negative health effects.
Moreover, smoking not only affects the life span of individuals, but also causes harm to the people around them through second-hand smoke, especially families with children need to be particularly vigilant, because children are more susceptible to respiratory diseases and infectious diseases when exposed to second-hand smoke for a long time.
If you happen to be a smoker, your doctor advises you to quit smoking as soon as possible, no matter how old you are or how old you are.
Data from a 20-year study of 550,000 participants published in JAMA Network Open showed that smokers (who had not quit 5 years before death) had a 180% increase in all-cause mortality compared to never-smokers (100 ≤cigarettes smoked during their lifetime).
Smokers who quit before age 35 had an about 3% increase in all-cause mortality; After the age of 35, smokers who quit before the age of 44 had an increase in all-cause mortality by about 21%; After the age of 44, smokers who quit smoking before the age of 64 have an increase in all-cause mortality by about 74%.
And quitting smoking before the age of 35 can increase life expectancy by at least ten years.
To sum up: lifestyle is closely related to life expectancy, and only by adhering to a healthy lifestyle are you more likely to become a centenarian, and no matter how old you are or whether you have chronic diseases, as long as you make changes from now on, yes, it is also beneficial to life expectancy.
Bibliography:
[1] Li Y, Wang K, Jigeer G, et al. Healthy Lifestyle and the Likelihood of Becoming a Centenarian. JAMA Netw Open. 2024; 7(6):e2417931.
[2] Liu Yisha. Improving lifestyle can prolong life expectancy[J].English Pictorial(High School Edition), 2022(25):6-6.
[3] Qiu Jiayan. Research on the model of health life expectancy and health influencing factors of the elderly at home in China[D].Soochow University,2019.