Healthy Lifestyle Boosts Women’s Longevity, Study Shows

Women who don’t smoke, maintain a healthy weight, eat a healthful diet and exercise regularly significantly reduce their risk from dying from any cause, and particularly from cancer and heart disease, a Harvard School of Public Health study found. 

A number of studies have shown associations between individual lifestyle factors and risk of chronic diseases, but few have looked at how a combination of lifestyle factors might influence mortality. 

“Our findings suggest that the combination of lifestyle factors has a substantially larger impact on survival than any single factor,” said Rob van Dam, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, who led the study. “Clearly, avoiding smoking is of major importance for health, but regular physical activity, a healthy diet and weight management can result in large additional health benefits. Even modest lifestyle changes, such as 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity (e.g., brisk walking) per day significantly reduced risk of premature death.”

Researchers analyzed data from 77,782 women participating in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study. They looked at participants’ responses to questionnaires about lifestyle and health conditions over a 24-year period, beginning in 1980. During the follow-up, 8,882 deaths were recorded. Researchers estimated that 55 percent of deaths from all causes, 44 percent of cancer mortality and 72 percent of cardiovascular mortality could have been prevented if participants had never smoked, engaged in regular physical activity, avoided becoming overweight and ate a healthy diet.

For more information, see the Harvard University press release.  This study is further evidence of the importance of helping clients exercise and eat healthy meals.

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