A combination of small changes in diet, exercise and sleep can add a year to your life, and even bigger changes can add another nine years or more, according to a new study.
combine changes diet, sleep and exercise It has also increased “healthy life expectancy,” or the number of years a person can live without serious health complaints.
“These findings highlight the importance of considering lifestyle behaviors as lifestyle habits. Package it, not standalone,” said lead researcher Nick Cormel, who studies physical activity, lifestyle and population health at Sindee University’s main campus in Camperdown, Australia.
“Targeting small improvements across multiple behaviors at the same time greatly reduces the changes required for a single behavior and may help overcome common barriers to long-term behavior change,” Cormel said in an email.
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But the findings are far from conclusive, said Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, who was not involved in the study.
“The problem is that this paper uses complex statistical techniques that are not always clearly explained,” McConway said in an email. “Thus, it is difficult to know how much of a finding is revealed by the statistical analysis chosen by the researchers, rather than what is obvious from the data.”
Cormel and his team used scientific modeling to predict the effects of as little as 5 minutes of additional sleep and moderate to vigorous physical activity (e.g. brisk walk or up the stairs), and adding an extra 1/2 cup of vegetables a day may add a year to your life.
However, this predictive result only applied to people who had extremely poor diets and short sleep times. 6 hours a night And I only exercised for about 7 minutes a day. Moreover, it was only after the model’s lifestyle improvements were significantly increased that the results became scientifically significant.
“All of the benefits reported in this study are theoretical,” Cormel says. “Direct causality from lifestyle patterns cannot be claimed. Therefore, these findings should be interpreted as expected or predicted benefits under the assumed behavioral change rather than as confirmed effects of the intervention.”
Longevity – 9.35 years – and the greatest increase in healthy life expectancy — 9.46 years — 42 to 103 minutes of exercise; 7 to 8 hours of sleep At the same time, eat a very healthy diet that includes fish, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
Adding exercise to this has moved the longevity needle the most. This fact doesn’t surprise Dr. Andrew Freeman, a preventive cardiologist and director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.
“Exercise is the elixir of youth,” said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. “But to be clear, this study should not be interpreted to mean that if you exercise for just two minutes and then stop, you have achieved your goal.
“Rather, you should aim for 20 to 30 minutes. Vigorous, breathless physical activitycombine daily strength and cardio exercises. That advice has remained unchanged through decades of research. ”
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the study, Published on Wednesday eClinicalMedicine surveyed approximately 60,000 participants from England, Scotland and Wales. UK Biobanka longitudinal health study with an average follow-up of 8 years. All study participants provided information about their diet, including ultra-processed foods such as sugary drinks. Some of the group wore watches that could more objectively measure movement and sleep.
Researchers collected this medical data and used it to develop theoretical scenarios for improving longevity and healthspan. Healthy life expectancy is defined as the number of disease-free years. cardiovascular disease, dementiachronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Type 2 diabetes.
Cormel said living longer is not the same as having a healthy lifespan or not getting sick. “The combination of improved sleep, physical activity, and diet was associated with longer lifespans, even if some chronic diseases developed later in life.”
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After adjusting the findings for a number of variables, e.g. ultra-processed foodsResults varied depending on the extent to which behavioral changes were achieved, including smoking, alcohol consumption, BMI, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness.
In addition to the low- and high-level lifestyle changes discussed above, researchers also found that lower physical activity (less than 23 minutes a day), 7 to 8 hours of sleep, and a good diet can extend your life by about 4 years and maintain your health by nearly 3 years.
Moderate levels of exercise (between 23 and 42 minutes a day), up to eight hours of sleep each night, and a high-quality diet were associated with an additional seven years of significantly improved lifespan and just over six years of improved health. Lots of calculations! What exactly does that mean?
“This isn’t about the absolute amount of time you exercise or sleep or how many broccoli you eat. It’s about making sure everything you do in life is synonymous with health,” Freeman said.
“Now is the perfect time to reflect on how you live your life and make big changes to live a healthier life by correcting your life trajectory,” he said. “The overall signal of noise is that if you live well, you live a healthy lifespan and live longer.”