Healthy lifestyle is secret to long life

Healthy lifestyle defeats Death

Heart disease, cancer and strokes are leading causes of deaths not just in the United States, but all over the world. In the Philippines, heart failure is one of the leading causes of mortality. Tobacco is being blamed for most deaths, although poor diet and physical inactivity are closing in as the second and third causes of deaths.

Scientists and health experts say, thirty minutes worth of exercise could immediately reverse these problems. The HALE project in Europe, a research which aims to unlock the secrets of longevity, says that there’s really is no secret except of course, maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The project studied lifestyle habits of 2,300 people, aged 70 and up and found that those:

The participants who avoided smoking, were physically active, drank in moderation, and ate a Mediterranean diet had drastically lower death rates during the study compared with those who did not. People with all four healthy habits had death rates one-third as high as people who had none or only one of the healthy lifestyle factors.

To protect health, physical activity did not require extreme exertion. Thirty minutes of walking, gardening, or cycling per day was enough. The Mediterranean style diet was rich in monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil), legumes, nuts, fish, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables. Non-smokers and those who quit tobacco more than 15 years ago both lived much longer than smokers. The strongest protective factors were regular physical activity (37 percent lower death rate) and not smoking (35 percent lower death rate). The message was clear: simple, healthy lifestyle habits increase longevity.

So, you want to live forever? Eat right, stay fit and keep everything in moderation.