Harming Yourself Bad For Longevity
We can all knowingly look at the smokers, but how often have you thought about what else you might be doing or failing to do that is known to greatly impact life expectancy? From EurekAlert!: "Non-smokers live longer and have less cardiovascular disease than those who smoke, according to a 30-year follow-up study of 54,000 men and women in Norway. ... deaths were recorded by linkage to the Norwegian population registry and, between 2006 and 2008, those surviving responded to a follow-up questionnaire. This allowed division of the participants according to their smoking status - never-smokers, ex-smokers, current smokers of 1-9 cigarettes a day, 10-19 cigarettes a day and more than 20 cigarettes a day (the last group referred to as 'heavy smokers'). Results showed that, from the original 54,075 participants, 13,103 had died by the time of follow-up. But it was a significant finding that, of these, 45% of the heavy-smoking men had died during the 30 years, compared to just 18% of the never-smokers. Similarly, 33% of the heavy-smoking women had died, but only 13% of the never-smokers. ... These results show what a tremendous impact smoking has on mortality. We are talking about very high numbers of people." Now recall that failing to exercise has roughly the same impact on life expectancy as smoking.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/esoc-3fs050609.php