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Scientists have found that living a healthy life can increase an individuals life span by up to 14 years.

Doing frequent exercise, not smoking, drinking in moderation and eating more fruit and vegetables were the key factor in increasing a person’s life, a study by the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council based in Norfolk found.

The Public Library of Science Medicine study involved research on 20,000 people over a time span of ten years.

Participants, who were between the age of 45 and 79, were given a point for each of the four healthy behaviours, which were not smoking, exercising, drinking no more than than 15 units of alcohol per week, (which is less than five large glasses of wine) and eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

The results showed that the participants who were aged between 45 and 79, and who followed all four rules were more likely to have lived longer than those who didn’t. In fact of those that didn’t, some died. The results also showed that smokers were 77% more likely to have died during the ten year period.

Professor Kay-Tee Khaw a gerontologist at Cambridge University who led the study said: “The results strongly suggest that these four achievable lifestyle changes could have a marked improvement on the health of middle-aged and older people, which is particularly important given the ageing population in the UK and other European countries.”

Health organisations welcomed the study and encourage people to take note of the findings. Judy O’Sullivan, who works at the British Heart Foundation said: “This is good news and shows that by living a healthy life, people can reduce their risk of dying from heart and circulatory disease.

“By not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, taking regular physical activity and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, people can improve their chances of living longer.”

I am not a smoker, but I do tend to abuse alcohol on weekends and I should eat more fruit and vegetables, and this research has encouraged me to look after my body more. What better time to start than the New Year- this should help you keep your resolutions!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Current Affairs, Health, Lifestyle, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.