It’s not exactly rocket science, but Canadian researchers have found people who engage in four specific healthy behaviors in midlife can significantly boost their longevity and improve the quality of their lives in old age.
The four keys have long been promoted by experts to boost health: Don’t smoke, consume alcohol in moderation, exercise regularly (at least 20 minutes per day), and eat lots of fruits and vegetables daily.
But the new study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, is the first to tie these habits to a longer, healthier, happier life at age 60 and older.
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"Our study shows the cumulative impact of healthy behaviors on successful aging — the greater the number of healthy behaviors, the greater the benefit," said lead researcher Dr. Séverine Sabia, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.
Successful aging was defined 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.
The study, by researchers in the UK and France, involved 5,100 healthy men and women who were tracked between 1991 and 2009. Over the course of the study, 549 died participants died and 953 were classified as “successfully aging” while the remaining people aged normally and developed a variety of ailments and chronic conditions.
The results showed that people who engaged in at least one of the four healthy behaviors in midlife were slightly more likely to be “aging successfully,” but those who made all four habits a part of their lives tended to “reach old age disease-free and fully functional,” the researchers concluded.
"All four healthy behaviors examined during midlife…were associated with greater odds of successfully aging," they said. "Compared with participants who engaged in no healthy behaviors, those who engaged in all four healthy behaviours had greater odds of aging successfully."
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