On Not Damaging Your Prospects for a Longer Life
As the publicity materials here note, it is all too easy to damage your prospects for a longer, healthy life. The potential loss of life expectancy that attends becoming sedentary, obese, or a smoker is arguably somewhat greater than any gains that might be achieved via presently available medical technologies, when used by someone who takes better care of themselves into later life. That said, it is also true that while the losses resulting from lifestyle choices are well established in many large studies, we have no idea as to the extension of human life expectancy that attends, say, the late life use of existing senolytic drugs, or mTOR inhibitors, or other approaches, alone or combined.
A new study involving over 700,000 U.S. veterans reports that people who adopt eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age can expect to live substantially longer than those with few or none of these habits. Scientists used data from medical records and questionnaires collected between 2011-2019 from 719,147 people enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program. The eight habits are: being physically active, being free from opioid addiction, not smoking, managing stress, having a good diet, not regularly binge drinking, having good sleep hygiene, and having positive social relationships.
According to the results, men who have all eight habits at age 40 would be predicted to live an average of 24 years longer than men with none of these habits. For women, having all eight healthy lifestyle factors in middle age was associated with a predicted 21 additional years of life compared to women with none of these habits. Overall, the results showed that low physical activity, opioid use, and smoking had the biggest impact on lifespan; these factors were associated with around a 30-45% higher risk of death during the study period. Stress, binge drinking, poor diet, and poor sleep hygiene were each associated with around a 20% increase in the risk of death, and a lack of positive social relationships was associated with a 5% increased risk of death.
So, how long is - an opiod addicted smoker with no friends aside for the drinking buddies with whom he tries to manage his perpetual stress through regular heavy drinking while gorging on chips and doughnuts, which then sit inside his huge stomach for hours preventing him from getting a good night's sleep and being physically active - expected to live?
.
It seems a bit extreme to be meaningful and that "24 years longer" is clickbait. I am not disagreeing with the message, just venting my frustration at the press, whether it claims that the "fountain of youth is 5 years away" or the above.