Healthy lifestyle and longevity
Healthy lifestyle: Using information from the renowned Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a significant study on the influence of healthy behaviours on life expectancy (HPFS). This indicates that they had access to information for a very long time about a large number of individuals. Over 78,000 women were tracked by the NHS between 1980 and 2014. Over 40,000 men were included in the HPFS, which tracked them from 1986 to 2014. There are more than 120,000 individuals in this study, and the data span 28 years for males and 34 years for women.
The researchers examined information from the NHS and HPFS that had been gathered via routinely given, validated questionnaires about diet, physical activity, body weight, smoking, and alcohol intake.
What is a healthy lifestyle, exactly?
These five areas were picked because previous research has indicated they have a significant impact on the risk of dying too soon. Here is how these beneficial practises were identified and evaluated:
- Healthy diet, It was assessed and scored based on the reported consumption of healthy foods including fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids, as well as unhealthy foods like red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fats, and sodium.
- Healthy physical activity level, It was defined as engaging in moderate to strenuous action for at least 30 minutes each day.
- Healthy body weight, characterised as a healthy body mass index (BMI), which ranges between 18.5 to 24.9.
- Smoking, Well, smoking is never in a healthy level. Here, being “healthy” meant never having smoked.
- Moderate alcohol intake, which was calculated as 5 to 15 grammes for women and 5 to 30 grammes for men per day. Typically, one drink has 14 grammes of pure alcohol in it. That is equivalent to 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of ordinary beer, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.
Along with comparison information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research, researchers also examined data on age, ethnicity, and medication use.
Article of 9 Gold Ayurveda & Ninetak | Five keys to a healthy lifestyle for a longer life
