A new study from British researchers have found that four bad habits can decrease your life expectancy by as much as 12 years. These four bad habits are:
- Smoking
- Drinking alcohol
- Eating unhealthy
- Not exercising
In the study, there were two groups, health and unhealthy. The unhealthy group had individuals who had all four of the bad habits and more of these individuals died before the 20 year study completed. Specifically, there were 314 unhealthy participants and 91 of them died. This is compared to the 32 who died out of the 387 people in the healthy group.
So what does this mean for you? If you smoke, you should think hard about quitting. Lung cancer is serious and life threatening. If you drink alcohol (more than three per day if you are a man and more than two per day if you’re a woman), you should strive to cut that down to only one a day or just a couple a week. If you don’t eat healthy foods, this is another lifestyle change you should consider along with increasing your physical activity.
Be kind to yourself! You don’t have to change all of your bad habits tomorrow. If you go cold turkey, chances are you’ll return back to them because it’s too hard to quit. Make small changes each day and work yourself up to leading a healthier lifestyle. You’ll thank yourself in a few years!
Photo: Saudi…’
Wed, Apr 28, 2010
Health, News