Live 17 years longer through healthy lifestyle

Who to alcohol, cigarettes and red meat „no thanks“ says, lives up to 17 years longer

08/14/2014

Alcohol, cigarettes and obesity can promote different diseases. But all risk factors have one thing in common: they can drastically reduce life expectancy. Researchers at the German Cancer Research Institute (DKFZ) recently calculated how to extend their lives. The result is not surprising: with a healthy lifestyle we can even gain up to 17 years.

Non-smokers with a healthy diet and physical activity have the greatest life expectancy
The epidemiologists led by Prof. Rudolf Kaaks from the DKFZ calculated how each individual risk behavior affects the life expectancy of today's forty-year-old and the consequences of a combination of different risk factors. For their analysis, the researchers were able to use data from the so-called EPIC, the pan-European study on the relationship between diet, lifestyle factors and cancer. For 20 years now, the lifestyle factors have been collected and documented in detail by more than half a million European citizens. The DKFZ is involved in the investigation and looks after 25,540 study participants from the Heidelberg area.

The analysis of the flood of data showed that non-smokers with a body mass index (BMI, quotient of body mass in kilograms and the square of the height in meters) between 22.5 and 24.9, who consume little alcohol and red meat, but eat and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables that have the highest life expectancy. At the age of 40, these men can look forward to 47.5 and these women over 48.7 more years.

Smoking reduces life expectancy the most
When looking at individual lifestyle factors, smoking has been shown to challenge most years of life. A man who smokes more than ten cigarettes daily costs his nicotine consumption 9.4 years of his life expectancy. For a woman, this is an average of 7.3 years. Even if less than ten cigarettes are consumed per day, the life expectancy of both sexes decreases by about five years.

Obesity (obesity from a BMI of 30 or more) reduces the life span of men by 3.1 and in women by 3.2 years. Even a low BMI of less than 22.5 kg / m2 reduces life expectancy by 3.5 years in males and 2.1 years in females. With heavy alcohol consumption, which the researchers defined as more than four drinks a day, life expectancy in men is reduced by 3.1 years. Women who eat a lot of red meat must expect to lose 2.4 years and men 1.4 years. However, lack of physical activity was not reflected in life expectancy, according to the researchers.

Little red meat, hardly any alcohol, no cigarettes and normal weight prolong life
As many people suffer from more than one unhealthy habit, the researchers also calculated what effect a combination of these lifestyle factors has. Therefore, a heavy smoker with obesity, who also drinks a lot of alcohol and consumes plenty of red meat, must expect a loss of 17 years compared to a person with a favorable risk profile. In women it is 13.9 years of life.

„Often, scientific evidence suggests a healthy lifestyle „raised index finger "felt", so Kaaks. „That's why it's important that we clearly quantify what each individual can gain in life if they forego unhealthy habits early on. "

The DKFZ is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany. More than 3,000 employees, including more than 1,000 scientists, are researching how cancer develops, identifying risk factors and seeking new strategies to prevent cancer. Their tasks also include the development of new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat them more successfully. (Ag)