Healthy Lifestyle Choices May Help Increase Lifespan

Making healthy lifestyle choices is important for maintaining good health. A new study has found that modifying 8 lifestyle factors in middle age may help increase lifespan by up to 6 years.

For their study, researchers used data from 46,620 adults between the ages of ages of 40 and 80 who participated in the Japan Collaborative Cohort. They assessed 8 modifiable lifestyle factors: consumption of fruit, fish and milk, walking and/or sports participation, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption and sleep duration.

Each participant was assigned a score based on the number of lifestyle factors they adhered to. Participants were followed for 21 years, and all deaths were recorded.

The researchers found that participants who adhered to a higher number of modified healthy behaviors were found to have a lifespan that was 6 years older than those who did not. The behaviors that were associated with the longest impact on lifespan were reducing alcohol intake, not smoking, losing weight, and increasing sleep.

The findings continued to hold for participants aged 80 years of more. The benefits were most pronounced in participants with health issues such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The study was conducted by researchers from Osaka University. It was published online ahead of print on May 11, 2022 in the journal Age and Ageing.