It’s clear now that living longer is heavily influenced by lifestyle choices like exercise and diet. Still, a recent unpublished study found that specific habits can add more than 20 additional years to your life.
The research, presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, found that practicing eight healthy habits at age 40 was associated with adding 24 years of life for men. Women saw similar benefits from incorporating these practices in their lives at age 40, with 21 extra years added.
Xuan-Mai Nguyen, lead study author and health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said in a press release, “We were really surprised by just how much could be gained with the adoption of one, two, three, or all eight lifestyle factors. The earlier, the better, but even if you could only make a small change in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, it still is beneficial.”
The eight habits that could add up to 24 years to your life, listed in order, starting with the highest impact on lifespan, include:
- Exercising
- Not having an addiction to opioids
- Avoiding smoking
- Managing your stress levels
- Adhering to a healthy diet
- Not binge drinking
- Prioritizing good sleep
- Maintaining positive social relationships
Adding only one of the habits to their routine seemed to provide 4.5 or 3.5 more years of life for men and women, respectively. Just two behaviors added seven more years of life for men and eight extra years for women. The observational study looked into the lifestyle choices of over 700,000 U.S. military veterans from ages 40 to 99, who are all participants of a years-long research called the Million Veteran Program.
The study found that lack of opioid use, physical activity, and smoking significantly impacted lifespan, with a 30 to 45 percent increased risk of death. The release states, “Stress, binge drinking, poor diet, and poor sleep hygiene were associated with around a 20 percent increase in the risk of death, and a lack of positive relationships was associated with a five percent increased risk of death.”
Nguyen added, “Participants also saw increases when adding the healthy habits in their 50s and 60s. It’s never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.”