Healthy Living In Midlife Has Big Effect On Successful Aging

We’ve all heard it before, Staying healthy helps you to live longer.

Well, now there is even more scientific proof (16-year study) out of the UK

Researchers followed 5100 men and women between 42 and 63 at the beginning of the study to see what effects four key healthy living habits had on the health during aging of those being studied.  The four habits in question were low to moderate alcohol consumption, not smoking, eating fruits and vegetables daily and exercising.

The researchers defined “successful aging” as maintaining the ability to function well with good mobility, cognitive skills, respiratory function, mental health and no chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke or disability at age 60 years or older.

Results:

After 16 years of following their subjects, they found that those who engaged in all four healthy living habits had significantly greater odds of successful aging than those that didn’t.  While engaging in one or two of the habits did help quite a bit, it seemed that the more healthy habits participants engaged in, the better their odds of being exceptionally healthy in later years.

While this may seem like common sense to most of us, it is always reassuring to hear the professionals confirm these practices with good old-fashioned science.