Izaak Walton

Hello all you interested reader out there!

The one subject that affects every one of us is our health and do you know what the best way of taking care of our health is?

Let’s take a brief look at some of our options for taking care of our health.

None of us is infallible… And we are all prone to illness especially when we age…

Fortunately, there is more than one way of doing things … Taking medications that sometimes help is one way but…

There is another way also…

The way of running healthy lifestyle as it is the real secret to longer and happier life.

Experts sound in one voice, you to put in practice the preventative measures for taking care of your health. What exactly does this mean?

Basically, it means eating a healthy diet, exercising properly, and living a healthy lifestyle. A yearly check-up is also a good way to know what shape you are in and to catch any developing illness.

Not smoking, regular exercise, maintaining normal weight, and avoiding diabetes and high blood pressure seem to be the secrets of living to age 90 – all these claims are supported by the results of hundreds of studies.

The statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau claim, about 5 million Americans are aged 85 and older, a number that will quadruple by 2050. The number of older population is growing and so are the costs of their health-care. This means, doctors should be more persistent and encourage older people to exercise and carry out healthy lifestyle.

The research carried out by Physicians’ Health Study, followed 2.357 men. They started the study at about age 72 and were surveyed at least once a year for the next two decades.

Over than 40% of them, 970 men survived to age 90 or beyond! Wonderful isn’t it?

According to the research a healthy 70-year-old men who had never smoked, had normal blood pressure and weight and exercised up to four times a week had a 54 percent chance of living until 90.

Exercising and not smoking “can have great payoff not only in terms of adding years to your life, but making those years be of good function and less disease” – claim the researchers.

On the other hand:

Sedentary lifestyle reduced the chances of prolong life to age 90 by 44 %,
High blood pressure by 36 %,
Obesity by 26 %
Smoking by 22 %

It should be outlined that having 3 of those risk factors significantly reduced the chances of surviving to age 90 to 14 %.
Furthermore, having 5 of those risk factors dropped the chance to mere 4 %.

The researchers also found the connection to the genetics of participants of the study.

This means, the genes determine only 25 % of the variation in lifespan, when the rest of 75 % are actually determined by lifestyle you live.

Study found that “Smoking, diabetes, obesity and hypertension each are predicted to reduce life expectancy by one to five years, while higher physical activity may add up to five years” and men who are in a good shape can prolong their life and add as much as 10 years to their lifespan.

In another study Dellara F. Terry, MD, MPH, and colleges, from University School of Medicine of Boston and Medical Center of Boston, studied 523 women and 216 men aged 97 or older.

The participants were spitted into 2 gender based and the age they developed diseases groups. Here is the list of diseases that were included into research:

• Obesity,
• Heart disease,
• Diabetes,
• High blood pressure,
• Dementia,
• Stroke,
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
• Osteoporosis,
• Parkinson’s.

The results of the research clearly indicated that even though about one-third of these survivors had developed the illnesses by age 85, they were not disabled by the illness.

The study also confirms the results from other studies that men had better mental and physical function than the female centenarians.

The authors of the research explain their findings saying: “One explanation for this may be that men must be in excellent health and/or functionally independent to achieve such extreme old age. Women on the other hand may be better physically and socially adept at living with chronic and often disabling health conditions .”

It’s interesting enough that studies couldn’t find a clear connection between moderate alcohol consumption and a longer and healthier life.

I hope you find these findings as rewarding and beneficial as I’m.

So, now it’s beyond any doubt that healthy lifestyle is the secret to longer and happier life.

It’s all up to you … You decide what makes you feel good and how you want to stay healthy.

After all, Health is the Wealth.  …And..  If you have no health you have nothing!

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I hope you enjoyed reading this article about Obesity and Healthy Lifestyle

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