People who adopted eight healthy habits before age 40 lived nearly two decades longer than those who did not. The effect is smaller but still significant for people who develop these eight habits before age 60.
Juan Mai Nguyen of the Virginia Health System in Boston and colleagues collected data on physical activity, diet, sleep, mental health, relationships and alcohol use from a cohort of more than 700,000 US veterans between the ages of 40 and 99. Participants filled out a questionnaire about their lifestyle between 2011 and 2019, and the researchers analyzed it along with data from their medical records.
During the eight-year study, 33,375 participants died. After controlling for factors such as age, socioeconomic status and race, the researchers found eight habits that were associated with a significantly lower risk of dying from any cause during this period. These include eating healthy, exercising, maintaining positive social relationships, managing stress, moderate alcohol consumption, not smoking, getting good sleep, and not having an opioid use disorder.
Physical activity has the greatest effect on life expectancy. Moderate physical activity, the equivalent of briskly walking at least several blocks a day, was associated with a 46 percent lower risk of death over eight years compared with a sedentary lifestyle.
Opioid-free people had a 38% lower risk of dying during this period than smokers, and those who had never smoked had a 29% lower risk of dying than current or former smokers.
A healthy diet consisting mainly of whole plant foods and stress management, as defined by a low post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) score, reduced the chance of dying during this period by about 20%. The same goes for moderation when it comes to alcohol, which is defined as drinking no more than four alcoholic drinks a day and getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Positive social relationships had the smallest effect, reducing the chance of death over time by only 5%.
Using this information, Nguyen and his colleagues modeled the life expectancy of people who learned these eight habits by age 40. Men and women will live 24 and 23 years longer, respectively, than those who did not receive the intervention. If participants had the intervention before the age of 60, their lives could be extended by 18 years, regardless of gender.
“These eight lifestyle factors are not related to drugs. "Physicians should not be involved," said Nguyen, who presented the findings July 24 at the American Nutrition Association conference in Boston. "It's very powerful because it shows that people can influence their [health] future."
However, Jenny Gia of Northwestern University in Chicago says it's not always that simple. "There may be social, environmental or political barriers to adopting some of these lifestyles," he says. For example, people in low-income areas may not have access to healthy food options, which also cost more and take longer to prepare than unhealthy alternatives.
It's also important to remember that this was an observational study, meaning it only found associations, Nguyen says. It should not be considered that habits only prolong life.
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