Vaudevillian comic George Burns lived to be 100 by following his own advice: "If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress, and tension."

A new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology confirms his sage observation.

Researchers tracked around 100,000 men for more than 13 years. The researchers looked at guys with high-stress jobs over which they had little control or for which they gained little recognition. They then looked at those guys who also had a disease called metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, elevated LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and belly fat.

The syndrome affects around 34 percent of Americans.

The researchers found that the mix of job stress and metabolic syndrome gave men guys a 68 percent higher risk of premature death than those who also had the syndrome but not the stress.

The good news? Your stress response is within your control.

You can tamp down your response with aerobic exercise daily (dispels stress hormones), meditation, by volunteering for something you care about, and by relying on friends and family for keeping things in proportion.

So tackle each risk factor in metabolic syndrome that applies to you. Work to upgrade your nutrition, reduce belly fat, control blood sugar levels, and take it easy on the alcohol.