5- Healthy Habits to lead a long disease-free life.

It is an old saying: “Health is wealth.” Without a healthy body and a healthy mind, it is not possible to achieve anything in life. Recent studies provide strong evidence that 5-healthy habits help us to lead a long disease-free life. A healthy lifestyle can substantially extend our period of life- with good health, devoid of any lifestyle diseases. The following 5 healthy habits can help us to lead a long disease-free life. 

Maintaining good health is the key to happiness. It can play a major role in achieving our goals in life. Without a healthy body and a healthy mind, we can not even think of getting good quality and progressive life. And it may impact the health and growth of future generations as well. By focusing on a healthy lifestyle, we can lower the risk of many diseases and improve the quality and quantity of our lives. Further, it has been found in recent research that middle-aged people can extend their healthy living years—free of diseases like type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc.—by adopting 5 healthy habits that may help to lead a long disease-free life.

How do healthy habits help us to lead a long disease-free life?

As per the study published in the journal- The B.M.J. a healthy diet, regular exercise, healthy body weight, moderate drinking, and no tobacco in middle age may help people to live longer.

“Previous studies found that following a healthy lifestyle improves life expectancy and reduces the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular ailments, and cancer. But few studies looked at the effects of lifestyle factors on life expectancy free from such diseases,” said study author Yanging Li from Harvard University in the U.S.

“ The study provides strong evidence that following a healthy lifestyle can substantially extend the years a person lives disease-free,” Li further said.

The researchers studied the data from- 73196 women for 34 years and 38366 men for 28 years, who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health professional’s Follow up study.

How long can you live with healthy habits?

Many studies have highlighted the role of a healthy lifestyle in improving overall life expectancy and reducing chronic diseases like cancer. heart diseases and type-2 diabetes. It was found in a study that women who adopted even four out of five healthy habits at the age of 50 had 10 years of longer life expectancy free from major chronic diseases than those who did not adopt a healthy regimen. Whereas men gained an app 8 years longer disease-free life.

Women with obesity had a body mass index of 30 or more and men who smoked 15 or more cigarettes a day had the lowest proportion ie 75% or less of disease-free life expectancy.

What are the 5-healthy habits to lead a long disease-free life?

Following are the 5-healthy habits to lead a long disease-free life:-

1. Eating a healthy and balanced diet.
2. No smoking.
3. Maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 to 24.9.
4. 30-minute moderate or vigorous exercise.
5. No more alcohol than a small glass of wine for women and a pint of beer for men.

Eating a healthy and balanced diet:-

Eating a healthy and balanced diet plays a vital role in treating, preventing, and controlling many diseases like- diabetes type-2, heart diseases, high blood pressure, cancer, obesity, and indigestion. Consume seasonally available fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fatty fish, dairy products, green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, eggs, etc. Your diet should be well balanced and contain essential nutrients like- fluid, micronutrients, macronutrients, and adequate energy-providing food. Prefer freshly prepared home-cooked meals prepared at least two to three hours before eating. Avoid or minimize the consumption of junk, processed, packaged, and dried food.

No smoking:-

Smoking has many ill effects on your health. Tobacco causes cancer. Rising levels of air pollution and smoking are injurious to health. Smoking may cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking can also increase the risk of tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems with the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. Smoking may lead to depression.

It is never too late to quit smoking.

A study published in ‘Nature’, it is said that once a smoker quits smoking the body replaces the damaged lung cells with healthy cells from the reservoir of healthy cells in the body.

The senior author, Peter Campbell said the study can give new hope to smokers willing to quit smoking. “What is so exciting about our study is that it shows that it is never too late to quit”.

Smokers who use to smoke heavily, he said.”But within a few years of quitting many of the cells lining their airways showed no evidence of damage from tobacco”.

Maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI):-

Maintaining a healthy body weight- is the key to get prevention from lifestyle diseases like- type-2 diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, etc. A healthy diet followed by regular exercise can help you to have a healthy body mass index (BMI). The following chart may help you to maintain a healthy BMI. Further, a healthy body weight- may also help you to get prevention from lethargy, sleep apnea, insomnia, etc. It adds to our self-confidence. Obesity may lead to cancer.

Obesity is measured with body mass index (B.M.I.) and waist measurement. Body mass index is the ratio of a person’s height to their weight. A healthy BMI is generally between 18.5 to 24.9. A BMI between 25 to 29.5 is considered overweight. Whereas a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese. A healthy waist measurement is under 40 inches for men and under 35 inches for women.

Regular exercise:-

Remaining physically active and maintaining a regular schedule of exercise helps a lot in preventing diseases like cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, etc. It improves our digestion. Regular exercise is an effective way to keep yourself physically fit and healthy. It helps to maintain healthy body weight; obesity is a risk factor for many diseases. Maintaining a healthy BMI through regular exercise is the key to feeling healthy and remaining disease-free. Sedentary lifestyle impacts health adversely.

Alcohol drinking in moderation:-

Alcohol consumption, even in small quantities, is unhealthy. Drinking alcohol exposes your body to harmful toxins, disrupts the normal functioning of the liver, affects the quality and quantity of sleep, and may lead to weight gain. It stops your body from burning fats, It is high in kilojoules. ( kilojoules or calories are the units of energy the body gets after consuming food or drink). Alcohol consumption can make you feel hungry and lead to unhealthy food consumption. which may add extra kilos to your body weight. If you drink alcohol. Then limit the consumption to one unit for women and two units for men per day. And avoid consuming unhealthy food. The best thing is to keep it off the table. But if even then you feel like drinking alcohol, drink it in moderation.

As per doctors, all the above five factors contribute largely to controlling diabetes, blood pressure, and lipids or cholesterol by maintaining a healthy lifestyle from an early age. They can reduce the risk of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases including cancer.

Wishing all a healthy disease-free life. For treatment, please consult your healthcare provider.

(For awareness purposes only).

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