Five healthy lifestyle habits could add ten or more years to life finds new study

New US research has found that sticking to five healthy habits throughout adulthood, including eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, no smoking, and not too much alcohol, could together add more than ten years to life expectancy. Led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the study is the first comprehensive analysis to look at the effect of adopting low-risk lifestyle factors on life expectancy in the US, a country which has a shorter average life expectancy (79.3 years) than almost all other high-income nations. The researchers analyzed 34 years of data from 78,865 women and 27 years of data from 44,354 men and defined the five low-risk lifestyle factors as not smoking, a low body mass index (18.5-24.9 kg/m2), at least 30 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, moderate alcohol intake (up to about one 5-ounce glass of wine per day for women, or up to two glasses for men), and a healthy diet.