Healthy Living

Some every day steps for a healthy life:

• Take 3 deep breathes of fresh air and focus on your body
• Drink at least 2 litres of water and green tea
• Take in morning sunlight for at least 15 minutes and look up
• Get 8 to 9 hours of sleep
• Walk briskly or exercise for at least 60 minutes
• Do a basic strength training workout
• Eat whole foods 
• Avoid smoking

Positive eating habits include:

• Eat foods with higher moisture levels, including foods that are boiled, steamed, or stewed
• Have 5 or more servings of vegetables each day and consume less meat
• Reduce baked, fried, toasted, crunchy, barbecued, roasted, processed foods as well as butter, coffee, soft drinks, emulsifiers, and foods high in animal fat, which tend to be high in AGEs and are linked to aging and bad health
• Minimise consumption of salt and sugar

These steps help if you are in need of a lift or feel stressed:

• Talk to supportive people
• Write down thoughts and feelings
• Disconnect
• Appreciate
• Stay positive

To increase longevity:

• A study of middle aged people found that the most powerful predictors of staying alive from the most to least powerful are social integration (how much you interact with people each day), close relationships, quit smoking and boozing, flu vaccine, cardiac rehab, exercise, being lean (as opposed to overweight), hypertension prescription, clean air [1]. 
• A major factor in longevity is the number of face to face interactions you have along with having at least 3 stable relationships, with women usually prioritising in person relationships. 
• Walk at a speed of at least 5km/hour and jog
• Strong grip strength and high push up ability
• Reduce calorie consumption
• Maintain a healthy BMI of between 18.5 to 25 or a BMI under 30 and waist under 90cm (for more muscular and fit people)
• Eat less red meat and more fish and nuts
• Happy marriage with more children
• Keep active and interested, such as singing with others
• Avoid bacteria, falls and bites
• Have an optimistic outlook

The Blue Zones identified nine common factors that increase longevity:

• Move naturally: The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron or run marathons. Instead, their environments nudge them into moving without thinking about it.
• A sense of purpose and direction: Why do you wake up in the morning? Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy. Be the person who has that energy and spark about them. Note that your purpose is what you want it to be, it can be doing as little as possible and not caring about anything or anyone.
• Down shift: Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. The world’s longest-lived people have routines to shed that stress.
• 80 percent full: “Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawans say this mantra before meals as a reminder to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full.
• Plant focused meals: The cornerstone of most centenarian diets? Beans. They typically eat meat—mostly pork—only five times per month.
• Moderate drinking: Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers, especially if they share those drinks with friends.
• Belong to a faith: Attending faith-based services four times per month – no matter the denomination – adds up to 14 years of life expectancy.
• Loved Ones First: Centenarians put their families first. They keep aging parents and grandparents nearby, commit to a life partner and invest in their children.
• Right Tribe: They world’s longest lived people chose or were born into social circles that support healthy behaviors.
• Additional things that can help: A positive attitude, small portions, exercise, faith, a loving family and socialising, lower oxidative stress, more green space [5]

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England followed 20,000 middle-aged men and women in England for 11 years and found that nonsmokers with the healthiest eating and exercise habits at the outset had a 14-year-life-expectancy edge over the people with the worst habits

Researchers at the Pacific Health Research Institute in Hawaii who followed 5,820 Japanese American men for 40 years found those who avoided risk factors such as obesity, heavy drinking, smoking and high blood pressure in middle age had a 69% chance of living to be 85, versus just 22% for men with six or more risk factors. [2]

People who make it to 100 tend to have staved off serious disability until well into their 90s, either by avoiding disease or by limiting its consequences.

Regular exercisers generally live five to seven years longer than inactive people.

A lack of iron is probably one major reason that being vegetarian is healthy for you. There was a very good study looking at the intake of red meat and heart disease in Leiden in the Netherlands: in regions where people didn't eat red meat, those populations had half the rate of heart attack and stroke compared to the populations that did eat red meat. This is one important reason why women live longer than men - women have an advantage over men in terms of cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke [3].

Nutrition and medical researchers have identified persistent inflammation as one of the worst offenders in aging, as its factors predict the risk of virtually all chronic diseases. And since chronic diseases cause the majority of early deaths, eating a diet that minimizes inflammation and the risk of chronic disease is key to increasing longevity and quality of life. 

It advises consuming more nutrient- and fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and less fatty meat, high-fat dairy, and refined, processed foods. An eating guide emphasises the importance of consuming nutrient-dense foods, sufficient fluid intake, and specific recommendations for the basic food groups. This includes brightly colored vegetables, deep-colored fruits, lean proteins, and healthy types of fat. A diet that adheres to these guidelines will help lower the risk of chronic disease yet provide plenty of health-protective nutrients. 

The New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine is the largest, most comprehensive study of centenarians and their families. One goal of this study is to observe lifestyle factors that study subjects have in common to try to determine the “secrets” of a long and healthy life. To date, no specific foods have been noted, but the study has shown that almost all people who reach the age of 100 are lean, particularly men [4].