Three simple habit changes can extend life

Illustrative photo: Nasha Niva

The Washington Post introduces the details.

A new large-scale study, conducted by specialists from the University of Sydney, shows that even minimal efforts in the areas of sleep, movement, and nutrition can have a colossal impact on how many years we live and, no less importantly, how long we remain healthy.

The scientific work was based on data from almost 60,000 volunteers from the UK Biobank (most of whom were around sixty years old), who wore an activity tracker for a week to record all daily movements and nighttime sleep, and also filled out detailed questionnaires about their dietary habits.

Researchers led by Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis systematized their typical sleep patterns, physical activity, and diet quality (using a scientifically accepted diet scoring system from zero to one hundred points, based on the consumption of vegetables, whole grains, sugary drinks, and other foods).

Based on this data, compared with medical histories over the next eight years, a mathematical model was created that predicted how long people would theoretically live and how healthy they would be depending on their habits.

The main object of study was the triad of factors: sleep, physical activity, and nutrition. Stamatakis and his colleagues have been studying the interrelationship of these three components for years, paying particular attention to physical activity and how little of it may be enough.

In previous studies, they found that even a few minutes of intense movement per day, which raises the heart rate and causes deep breathing, leads to a reduced risk of cancer and other chronic diseases and premature death.

But the researchers also understood that exercise alone is not enough for a long and healthy life. People also need to sleep and eat. They asked themselves: what are the ideal proportions of these three elements? And, more realistically, what minimal changes should people make to achieve positive results?

Ideal combination of habits

The developed model showed that there is a unique natural synergy between these three elements.

Scientists identified an ideal combination that provided almost ten additional years of good health and life compared to people whose indicators were the lowest. This meant at least 7.2 hours of sleep plus 42 minutes of activity per day and food without excessive fat and carbohydrates.

What is optimistic is that, according to the model, even small improvements in all three areas simultaneously bring much more benefit than focusing on just one.

Just 5 minutes of extra sleep per day, two minutes of added activity, and an improvement in what you eat (which can be achieved with one extra serving of vegetables or whole grains) moved people out of the lowest, unhealthy category. Statistically, this added a year to their probable life expectancy.

Such small changes also increased the expected healthy lifespan — meaning the number of years a person can live without serious chronic diseases.

According to the model, similar gains in longevity and health, obtained from any of these elements individually, would require significantly greater effort. For example, if a person decides to only increase physical activity, they would need an additional twenty-two minutes of intense exercise daily to achieve the same effect provided by just two minutes of movement combined with slightly longer sleep and better quality food.

"We found that changes can be minimal when combined," the scientist explains. "It might be enough to put down your phone a little earlier in the evening to get five minutes more sleep. Plus, take the stairs instead of the elevator at work and use whole-grain bread for your sandwich instead of white bread. These little things add up."

Of course, the researchers acknowledge certain limitations of their work. This is statistical modeling based on predictions, not on real observation of each participant's entire life path. Factors such as heredity, income level, and previous medical history also play a significant role.

Nevertheless, this does not negate the main idea of the study: even very small changes can help increase the length and health of your life.

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