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10 Ways To Live A Longer, Healthier Life
Category: Living WellHere are 10 tried and tested ways to help you live a longer, healthier life.
1. Don’t oversleep:
Studies show that people who sleep more than eight hours per night had a significantly higher death rate than normal. Meanwhile, researches say that sleeping less than four hours also increases death rates. People who sleep between six and seven hours per night were shown to live the longest.
2. Be optimistic.
Optimistic people have a 50% decreased risk of early death compared with their pessimistic counterparts. Those with a positive outlook on life are probably less stressed, better equipped to deal with adversity and, therefore, healthier. Optimists also tend to have lower blood pressure than pessimists, which, again, is most likely related to how positive thinkers respond to stress.
3. Have more sex:
Having sex helps keeping us healthy, and thus increases our longevity. However, say researchers, it’s not necessarily the actual biological response generated by sex that makes us live longer, but that having intimate sex means you are less stressed, happier and better rested–all factors that can lower blood pressure and protect against stroke and heart disease. A study published in the April 2004 Journal of the American Medical Association found that “high ejaculation frequency was related to decreased risk of total prostate cancer.”
4. Get a pet:
People who own pets, especially dogs, have been shown to live longer. They are less stressed and require fewer visits to their physicians than non-owners. Survival rates for heart attack victims who had a pet have been shown to be 12% longer than for those who did not have one. Pet owners have also been shown to have lower blood pressure. The reasons for these findings are most likely related to an array of psychological factors, such as the facts that owning a pet decreases loneliness and depression, encourages laughter and nurturing, and stimulates exercise.
5. Get a VAP:
VAP is a cholesterol test that is more advanced than traditional ones, and therefore, much better at detecting risks. The VAP test measures important metrics, which traditional cholesterol tests miss completely. Unlike a regular test, which only detects half of the people with heart disease, the VAP has been shown to detect 90% of heart disease patients. That’s important because lipid abnormalities can most often be rectified with medication and dietary changes. And since the danger of the abnormalities is cumulative, the sooner you start making changes, the better. This simple blood test can be done in most doctors’ offices.
6. Be rich
Generally, population groups that suffer the worst health status are those that have the highest poverty rates and the least education. One possible explanation for this is that higher incomes permit access to better food and housing, safer neighborhoods and increased medical care. Higher incomes also increase the opportunity to engage in health-promoting behaviors. That’s not to say that being very wealthy is always better for longevity–after all, being a chief executive certainly exposes you to a high level of stress that can decrease life expectancy. But according to the data, striving to be financially comfortable is a good goal for aspiring centenarians.
7. Stop smoking
Alright, smoking’s negative effects on health isn’t news, but it still has to be said: not smoking can significantly improve your prospects of living a long life. Middle-aged men who are long-term, heavy smokers face twice the risk of developing more aggressive forms of prostate cancer than men who have never smoked. Cigarette smoking has been clearly linked to the most common causes of death in the elderly.
8. Relax and chill out
Those who are often angry and stressed out are three times more likely to develop premature heart disease than those with lower anger responses. These “angry people” are also six times at risk ofhaving a heart attack by age 55. One possible explanation for these dramatic findings is the correlation between anger and high blood pressure, a condition that commonly develops in highly stressed individuals.
9. Eat your antioxidants
Antioxidants, special substances that are found in foods ranging from cinnamon and cloves to blueberries and artichokes, have the ability to scavenge free radicals, compounds whose unstable chemical nature accelerates the effect of aging on our cells. Until these excess free radicals are quenched by antioxidant molecules, cellular damage accumulates. This contributes to an array of degenerative diseases, including atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Research shows that certain types of beans are among the best sources of antioxidants, while blueberries and other berries follow close behind.
10. Marry well
Apparently, longevity genes can be inherited. According to a February 2005 study in Mechanisms of Aging and Development, exceptional longevity and healthy aging is an inherited phenotype across three generations. So, for the bachelors out there deciding between a few women, pick the one whose grandparents are still alive. Of course, this won’t make you live longer, but it might help your children.
