Simple ways to live 14 years longer…..

Today's post: Monday, 1-14-2008

The hidden & super extra benefit is that you also cut the number of years you are in bad health.

That means that the people who follow these simple health practices gain even more than 14 years of healthy, enjoyable life. So your actual gain may be more like 20 or 25 years of good life. Not bad.

This news below was in the online news on Tuesday last week. The Reuters title was:

“Four health changes can prolong life 14 years”

Their summary quote & lead paragraph said this: ” People who drink moderately, exercise, quit smoking and eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day live on average 14 years longer than people who adopt none of these behaviors, researchers said on Tuesday.“

(You can find the Reuters health news at www.yahoo.com or www.news.yahoo.com .)

Here are two of the four practices. Another study was reported this week that said that just drinking moderately & getting regular exercise increased longevity. (Both of these practices boost your protective HDL levels & tend to prevent heart disease & strokes. They also help relive stress.)

Not smoking is the third one & may give you the most leverage in protecting your health according to the article. Yesterday, we posted the information on why it’s so incredibly important to not smoke or quit smoking as well.

The fourth one is also important & improves your health now.: Eating five or more servings of fruit & vegetables each day also has multiple benefits.

Eating vegetables tends to prevent people from getting or staying overfat & does it without making people hungry, so it’s a sustainable practice.

Eating raw cruciferous vegetables like broccoli & cauliflower each day both protects against all cancers & slashes the risk of the really dangerous & invasive cancers.

And, vegetables not only contain potassium, which helps keep your blood pressure in the healthy range & many vitamins, they contain a truly amazing amount of other micronutrients that protect your health in a multitude of other ways.

There are maybe 12 or 14 other things you can do to protect your health that also work extremely well that we’ve posted about here.

But this list is great because it’s only four things and just doing these four things is extremely protective.

1. Get regular exercise.

Even a small bit of regular walking a few times a week has 40 percent of the benefits of an ideal program the research has found. (Adding even two days of strength training & two or three days of vigorous aerobic exercise even for a few minutes each time gets you to about 80 percent.)

An extra incentive that’s less well known is that both men & women who exercise have better sex lives than people who don’t.

2. Don’t smoke or stay in an area that has second hand smoke in it.

(See yesterday’s post, if you need any convincing to quit if you smoke now.)

3. Eat more than five servings of vegetables & fruit each day. (Five servings or more of vegetables with at least one of them being a raw cruciferous vegetable is even better. Fruit is also valuable; but even one or two servings a day is protective.)

4. The fourth one is a good bit more fun. Drink a drink or two most days.

Red wine & dark beer do have extra micronutrients & health benefits; but the alcohol in other drinks also works. So, if you prefer tequila, scotch, or martinis go ahead & enjoy them.

(Warning, do avoid drinking more than two drinks a day; & don’t drive after drinking more than one or two drinks. People who do sometimes live much shorter lives. This is an avoidable effect in the wrong direction.)