Laiba Shahzad
Nowadays, longevity sells and this is what marketers like to claim. They sell their products by saying that they will add years to your life. Social scientists keep on comparing the mortality rates that are associated with various groups of people and their ways of living. Then, they try to find out what the people with the longest lives actually do.
There are some things according to experts that actually create an impact when you are trying to live a longer life. These are the things that can help you stay healthy and enjoy your golden years of life. No matter what your age is, you have the power to change many of the variables that influence how long you live. You can control how active and vital you feel as you age.
Following are the actions that experts suggest when you think of living a longer life:
A healthy diet:
There is plenty of research that suggests that eating healthy food can help to extend your life. It can improve your overall health and can protect you from the majority of diseases. A healthy diet can help you to stay away from heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and cataracts. Although there are so many diets suggested to stay healthy but sticking to the basics i.e. eating a more plant-based diet, whole grains, more fruits, and less meat can help to maintain a balanced diet.
Even if you are starting to change your diet, you need to be sure that the smallest changes today can add up to greater benefits. Studies have revealed that people, who ate 20 percent of a healthy diet, decrease their risk of early death by up to 17 percent.
Doing regular exercise:
For your physical and mental health, it is extremely important to stay active. It boosts your energy and keeps your mood pleasant all the time. So, when you are happy then it means you are going to live a longer life. According to the guidelines of the Federal physical activity, an individual should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise every week. It must also include twice-weekly sessions of muscle-strengthening which will help to reap the benefits of longer life.
However, smaller sessions of physical activity can also help that include walking and cleaning. According to studies conducted in 2017 and 2018, even the lightest physical activity helped to increase the lifespan of older men and women. Instead of sitting for a long period of time, simple movements can reduce the risk of early death by 17 percent.
Keeping a healthy body weight:
The entire purpose of a healthy diet and regular exercise is to maintain a healthy body weight. The Circulation study defines it as a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9. When it comes to obesity, it gets linked to Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc. which shorten the life of an individual. A study carried out in 2018 revealed that extreme obesity reduced a year off the U.S. life expectancy by and is responsible for 186,000 every year.
Alcohol intake:
For many years it was considered that a moderate amount of alcohol intake does not bring harm your health. But recently, studies have proved that people who take alcohol should be more cautious about its intake. It was revealed through a big meta-analysis that there is no such thing as a safe amount of drinking. Experts suggest that people should strictly limit their alcohol consumption in order to avoid diseases and live longer life.
Quit smoking:
Smoking should strictly be avoided if you want to live a longer life. It not only causes lung cancer but also risks your health causing it to suffer from a heart attack, stroke, or throat cancer. The best way to live a long life is to avoid smoking at all costs but if you are a smoker, it is best to quit right away.
