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How A Healthy Lifestyle Can Increase Your Longevity

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How A Healthy Lifestyle Can Increase Your Longevity

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Longevity is also commonly referred to as long life. This term is derived from “longaevitās,” which is a Latin word. This word was created from the combination of two words, aevum (age) and Longus (long). In short terms, it refers to an individual loving for a long period.

One thing with this word is that it has a comparative nature. Long, itself, is relative. So when we talk about long life, it is a life that’s longer than another or something else – in this case – the average lifespan. We can say that a person has a long life or longevity if they live longer than what’s seen as the average lifespan.

The goal of living a long life is to maximize a person’s potential age. The potential to achieve this can be accomplished by a person’s attitude and health behaviors.

People have different relative longevity. While many people think that their genes are the primary determinant of longevity, in reality, genetics only account for just 30% of a person’s life expectancy. What makes up the other parts are mainly healthy behaviors, environment, a person’s attitude, and some little luck.

While it isn’t far-fetched for you to hear about numerous life extension techniques, the truth is that none of those techniques are proven. They are mainly just theories. The only sure way to increase or be confident of your longevity is by living a healthy lifestyle.

Living a healthy lifestyle

Naturally, the next question on your mind should be what a healthy lifestyle is about. There are several things that you can do that can impact your life and cause premature death. In the same way, there are other habits and lifestyles that you can do that will help you live longer.

If you’re looking to go past the average life span and increase your longevity, here are healthy lifestyle changes that you should start doing:

1. Do regular exercises

Many research proves that when a person undergoes moderate exercises regularly, it is capable of rolling back the time on their DNA.

Generally, you should look to involve yourself in 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity every day to maintain a healthy living.

2. Regular intermittent fasting

This is another healthy lifestyle that can help boost longevity. Although there are different variations to doing this, intermittent fasting increases a person’s lifespan and improves their health significantly. Some studies date back to the 1930s showing how calorie intake restrictions extended mice’s lifespan, and it also worked on other species.

According to a 2018 study that considered 53 non-obese adult human beings over two years, the calories were restricted by 15% in a test group. The metabolic studies show that there was evidence of reduced oxidative damage compared to the other control group.

3. Take a healthy diet

Healthy Lifestyle Can Increase Your Longevity

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

It has to be said that there is a lot of debates regarding the diets or food that does more to increase longevity. However, whatever way you look at it, everyone agrees that vegetables are the way to go, especially when talking about living a healthy lifestyle. There are other foods that you can take additionally, though. Some of these are fruits, healthy fats, whole grains, etc.

4. Sleep more often

Many people tend to live their best lives after getting close to seven hours or more of sleep per night. You must sleep well enough daily to live a healthy life.

5. Manage your stress levels

Living in stress, especially when you don’t properly manage it, can negatively affect your body and promote other unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or overeating.

6. Cultivate your private relationships

When you spend a lot of time with the people you love, it will likely boost your longevity. It could be because you are less at risk of engaging in risky behaviors that are dangerous to your health or because it reduces the stress in your body. A study by the University of Exeter Medical School discovered that participants had their mortality reduced by 22% in comparison to other non-participants.

7. Reduce alcohol intake and don’t smoke

Smoking is injurious to health and reduces longevity. Taking alcohol excessively also has adverse effects on health. Taking moderate alcohol means that you are taking between 5 to 15 grams daily and 5 to 30 grams daily for women and men, respectively.

The difference that healthy living can have

Living a healthy lifestyle makes so much difference in longevity. According to a study, people who live a healthy lifestyle and follow the guidelines stated in the upper part of this article lived significantly longer than people that didn’t live a healthy lifestyle, especially if they don’t do any of those things mentioned. The difference in life span was as much as 12 years in men and 14 years in women if they already lived all of these habits by the age of 50. In comparison, other people that didn’t live with any of these habits have a very high chance of dying prematurely from cardiovascular diseases or cancer. It also has to be said that people tend to live longer based on the number of healthy habits. The more of these habits they lived, the longer their lifespan, which doesn’t come off as a surprise to anyone anymore. It’s now a known fact.

This confirms an older study from 2017 that used Health and Retirement data and found that 50+ adults with average weight, drink moderate alcohol, and never smoked lived about seven years longer than people of their age who did those things.

A mega-analysis from 2012, which involved 15 international studies and more than 500,000 participants, also discovered that over 50% of what is termed premature death were caused by factors like obesity, poor diet, excessive alcohol, inactivity, and smoking. There is much more research that supports this.

Conclusion

Your longevity is primarily in your hands as it can be influenced by the habits that you choose to practice. So be committed to living a healthy life, and you are bound to live a longer life.

Emily Harrison is one of the most influential editors at an essay writing service in London. She has been working in this company since 2006 and coordinated the mba essay writing service. Her hobby is reading books. But besides that, Emily is fond of sports and music. She is a very positive person.

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