Harvard Healthy Lifestyle: Five Keys to a Longer Life

Do you know this? Adopting 5 easy practices can significantly lengthen your lifetime by up to an additional 14 years for women and 12 years for men, according to a 34-year Harvard University study of more than 123,000 participants.

The greatest desire that we all have is to live a happy, healthy, and long life. Well, nobody likes to be sick and no one loves to die at an early age, although we all desire to live longer, we might not always be taking the proper steps to do so.

HERE ARE THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT STEPS TO BE TAKEN TO LIVE LONGER:

SAY NO TO SMOKING

• According to research from "Action on Smoking and Health," a 30-year-old smoker can assume living roughly 35 additional years, while a 30-year-old non-smoker can estimate living 53 more years.
• Secondly, an average man loses 11 minutes of life for every cigarette he smokes. Thus, each carton of cigarettes is a day and a half of life wasted. A man who smokes a pack a day annually loses roughly two months of life, as stated in the Health Letter from the University of California, Berkeley.
• "Smoking is harmful to your health," is a regular sign you'll encounter in bus and train stations, furthermore while you watch a movie you could notice the same phrase on the screen; however, nobody cares about that phrase, despite the warning side effects.
• At the same time, I don’t say that quitting that habit is easy, but once you start trying and when you could leave that smoking habit, it will add great benefits to your life and your body will thank you in the long term.
• The cigars that you smoke contain many harmful components such as:
• Tar is a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and it also constricts the bronchioles in your lungs, thus disturbing the absorption of oxygen.
• Secondly, the dangerous gas carbon monoxide causes your heart to work harder and has negative effects on your lungs by replacing the oxygen present in your blood.
• There are a few other compounds such as benzene and arsenic which are carcinogenic too, therefore the entry of these harmful substances into your body, while you smoke a cigar increases the greater risk for lung diseases, heart diseases, cancers, etc,

WHAT HAPPENS, WHEN YOU STOP SMOKING?

• The first thing that you can see is dropping in your blood pressure and heart rate to normal limits just within the 30 minutes of quitting smoking.
• Additionally, our body's carbon monoxide levels will return to normal the next day.
• Furthermore, in the next 2 weeks, your breathing and circulation will start improving, and over the coming months, your coughing and breathing problems will get better.
• Finally, your chance of developing heart problems will be 50% that of a smoker, after a year. So, as long as you don't smoke, the health advantages and lower risks remain.

EAT A HEALTHY DIET

• There are many studies that have been conducted to understand the link between a healthy diet and life expectancy, and one of the original research articles published in PLOS medicine is conducted based on other studies such as the global burden of diseases study, where the study declares that making the sustained shift from the standard Western diet to the ideal diet starting at the age of 20 might extend life expectancy by roughly 10.7 years for women and 13 years for men.
• The ideal diet here represents legumes, whole grains, and nuts, which contributed towards the benefit of gaining an extra 10 years of life in women and nearly 13 in men.
• One of the important things to be remembered as one in five deaths is caused by inadequate diets, as reported in the British magazine The Lancet, and it may result in issues like diabetes and high blood pressure, therefore reducing the intake of animal-based foods such as red meat and processed meats or fried foods is as important as the consumption of these plant-based foods such as legumes, to live longer.

LET EXERCISE BE A PART OF YOUR DAY

Organizing a time slot for exercise is crucial, as Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bill Gates—some of the most famous business people in the world also prioritize physical activity on a daily basis On the other hand, just a little bit of exercise each day can increase life expectancy by up to 4.5 years, according to research from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The reason behind exercise improving your survival rate is the fact that exercise has the ability to lower the risk of developing aging-related disorders including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. So take a few minutes for exercise and if your job is such that you have to sit throughout the day, make your get up every hour and have a small walk and then come back to your place, also you can do a brisk walk before you go to work or after you come home.

• PHYSICAL ACTIVITY RECOMMENDATIONS
• In order to put this into viewpoint, the regular exercise recommendations for Americans state that adults should engage in 150–300 minutes of moderate–intensity activity per week (or 20–45 minutes per day)
• 75–150 minutes of vigorous–intensity aerobic physical activity per week (or 10–20 minutes per day).
• Practicing the activities such as brisk walking for 20-25 minutes per day is considered to be moderate-intensity activity.
• Alternatively, jogging, running, and taking vigorous fitness classes which require some additional effort fall into the category of vigorous exercises.

WEIGHT CONTROL

• Weight control is the most important step toward the control of death rates since obesity is the cause of many conditions such as hypertension, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders, and heart diseases.
• The Harvard study found that losing weight considerably lowered the risk of developing diabetes mellitus, risk factors of heart disease, and breast cancer.
• According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9 is regarded as healthy, while a person's definition of a "healthy" weight differs from person to person.
• The deposition of fats in our body is mostly due to the sedentary lifestyle and the unhealthy diet that we include in our daily routine, therefore following a healthy lifestyle such as practicing exercise and having a healthy diet as mentioned above can help you in maintaining the proper weight, without actually leading to the serious problems of overweight.

LIMIT YOUR ALCOHOL

• Alcohol is everywhere; it may be seen at happy hour, meetings, social gatherings, and many other events. Some people may even turn to alcohol as a social stimulant to get through difficult days.
• One study claims that consuming one drink per day on a regular basis lowers mortality by lowering the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, heart failure, and strokes.
• Either one or two glasses per day after the ages of 40 are associated with an average six-month reduction in life expectancy, according to additional research.
• However, it’s very significant to note that long-term alcohol use can lead to various serious effects such as a compromised immune system, and alcoholic liver disease also can lead to fatal accidents.
• Remember that you may start with a glass, but sooner you will be an alcohol addict, since it's highly difficult to withdraw yourself from drinking after you get used to it, better not to drink at all, since drinking is not the ultimate solution to your problems and will rather add more problems to your life.

CONCLUSION

Every one of us loves to live longer, however, how many of us really put some effort to achieve that longevity or long life? is a question to all of us today. let’s try to follow the five popular tips mentioned above according to the Harvard study and live a healthy, happy, and longer life, as every tip you follow is a link or connectivity to reach your aim of living long.