Longevity: See seven tips for living longer – 01/20/2024 – Balance

Humans have been searching for the secret of immortality for thousands of years. For some people these days, that pursuit includes things like sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, trying cryotherapy, or exposing themselves to infrared light.

Most aging experts are skeptical that these actions will significantly extend the upper limits of human lifespan. What they believe is that by practicing some simple behaviors, many people can live healthier lives for longer, reaching their 80s, 90s and even 100s in good physical and mental shape. The interventions simply aren’t as exotic as transfusing yourself with a young person’s blood.

“People are looking for the magic pill,” says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the National Institute on Aging, “and the magic pill is already here.”

Below are seven tips from geriatricians on how to add more good years to your life.

1. Move more

The number one thing experts recommended was keeping your body active. That’s because study after study has shown that exercise reduces the risk of premature death.

Physical activity keeps the heart and circulatory system healthy and offers protection against numerous chronic diseases that affect the body and mind. It also strengthens muscles, which can reduce the risk of falls in older people.

“If we spend part of our adult years building our muscle mass, our strength, our balance, our cardiovascular endurance, then as the body ages, you’re starting from a stronger place for what’s to come,” says Anna Chang, professor of medicine specializing in geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

The best exercise is any activity that you enjoy doing and will continue to do. You don’t need to do much, either — the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, meaning just walking a little more than 20 minutes a day is beneficial.

2. Eat more fruits and vegetables

Experts did not recommend one specific diet over another, but generally advised eating in moderation and aiming to consume more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. The Mediterranean diet — which prioritizes fresh produce, as well as whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and olive oil — is a good model for healthy eating, and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia .

Some experts say maintaining a healthy weight is important for longevity, but for John Rowe, a professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University, that’s less of a concern, especially as people age. “I’ve always worried more about my patients who lost weight than my patients who gained weight,” Rowe said.

3. Get enough sleep

Sleep is sometimes overlooked, but it plays an important role in healthy aging. Research has found that the amount of sleep a person gets on average per night is correlated with the risk of death from any cause, and that consistently getting good quality sleep can add several years to a person’s life. Sleep appears to be especially important for brain health: A 2021 study found that people who slept less than five hours a night had double the risk of developing dementia.

“As people age, they need more sleep rather than less,” says Alison Moore, professor of medicine and chief of geriatrics, gerontology and palliative care at the University of California, San Diego. Seven to nine hours are generally recommended, she added.

4. Don’t smoke and don’t drink too much either

Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of all forms of deadly diseases. “There is no dose of cigarette smoke that is good for you,” Rowe said.

We are beginning to understand how harmful excessive alcohol use is too. More than one drink a day for women and two for men — and possibly even less than that — increases the risk of heart disease and atrial fibrillation, liver disease and seven types of cancer.

5. Manage your chronic conditions

Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, 40% have high cholesterol and more than a third have prediabetes. All of the healthy behaviors mentioned above will help manage these conditions and prevent them from developing into even more serious illnesses, but sometimes lifestyle interventions are not enough. That’s why experts say it’s critical to follow your doctor’s advice to keep things under control.

“It’s not fun to take medication; it’s not fun to check your blood pressure and check your blood sugar,” Chang said. “But when we optimize all of these things into a complete package, they also help us live longer, healthier, better lives.”

6. Prioritize your relationships

Psychological health often takes a backseat to physical health, but Chang said it’s just as important. “Isolation and loneliness are as harmful to our health as smoking,” she said, adding that it puts us “at a higher risk of dementia, heart disease, stroke.”

Relationships are fundamental not only to living healthier, but also happier. According to the Harvard Study of Adult Development, strong relationships are the biggest indicator of well-being.

Rowe tells his medical students that one of the best indicators of how an elderly patient will be doing in six months is to ask him “how many friends or family members he has seen in the last week.”

7. Cultivate a positive mindset

Even thinking positively can help you live longer. Several studies have found that optimism is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and people who score high on optimism tests live 5% to 15% longer than more pessimistic people. This may be because optimists tend to have healthier habits and lower rates of some chronic diseases, but even taking these factors into account, research shows that people who think positively still live longer.

If you had to pick a healthy practice for longevity, “do some form of physical activity,” Moore said. “If you can’t do that, then focus on being positive.”

This article was originally published in The New York Times.