Exercise and healthy lifestyle prolong life even in old age

It’s never too late to start exercising or quit unhealthy lifestyle to add years to life...

12:04 02 September 2012

A recent study has confirmed that it’s never too late for human beings to start leading a healthy lifestyle in order to add years to life. Swedish researchers followed one thousand eight hundred 75 year old individuals for 18 years to observe the correlation between their lifestyle and life span. 

The researchers grouped participants into two categories; low risk individuals or those who did not smoke, who had participated in at least one physical activity, and who had rich social network. 

 

High risk individuals, on the other hand are those who were smokers, not engaged in any type of physical activity, and those who had limited or poor social network.  

 

The study confirms that low risk individuals lived longer compare to high risk individuals by 5-6 years. 

 

However, it’s worth noting that based on the same research, people who drank alcohol outlived those who never drank by more than a year.

 

Debora Rizzuto who is the lead author and PhD student of the Aging Research Centre at the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University said: "The associations between leisure activity, not smoking, and increased survival still existed in those aged 75 years or more, with women’s lives prolonged by five years and men’s by six years. These associations, although attenuated, were still present among people aged 85 or more and in those with chronic conditions."