Healthy lifestyle habits are often stated to be the recipe for a longer life. While a healthy diet or exercise are often singled out as the most potent weapons you can add to your arsenal of protection against mortality, a new study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that stacking healthy habits could be more effective.
In fact, adopting six healthy habits could decrease your risk of dying by a whopping 73 percent.
The research team arrived at their findings by looking at 719,147 veterans between the ages of 40 to 99. The study suggested adopting the following six changes for boosting your longevity.
1. Exercise
Being physically active cut the risk of dying among the study participants the most – by 46 percent.
The study considered 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly as a threshold for being physically active.
2. No smoking
Another important lifestyle habit was living without cigarettes. Never smoking shaved 30 percent of the risk of dying.
3. Healthy diet
Following a healthy diet packed with plant-based foods was able to lower the risk by 21 percent. However, the researchers stressed it’s key to stick to healthy plant-based foods instead of just any.
4. Limit alcohol consumption
Keeping your alcohol consumption at bay and not engaging in frequent binge drinking was another factor that could promote longevity.
5. Sleep
Getting restorative sleep of seven to nine hours was found to decrease the risk of mortality by 19 percent.
6. Social life
The last piece of the puzzle was having positive social interactions, which could lower the risk of dying by five percent.
The study also considered factors like depression, anxiety and opioid addiction. Being free of either was associated with a decrease in mortality of 29 percent and 38 percent, respectively. Interestingly, opioid disorder scored lower as a harmful behaviour than physical inactivity.
While adhering just to the six lifestyle changes numbered above could cut your risk of dying by 73 percent, adopting or being free of all eight factors could slash your mortality by 87 percent.