Doctors’ Advice: Top 11 Daily Habits Add 5 Years To Your Life

Nowadays, along with the modernization which makes the life become easier, the pollution, the bad food, the stress… cause many diseases. Therefore, it is important to have good habits to be safe, healthy and live longer. Today’s article describes top 11 daily habits add 5 years to your life. Follow doctors’ advice to save your life and live longer.

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To Add 5 Years To Your Life, Follow These Daily Habits

1. Getting Enough Sleep

Besides the diet daily, you should get enough sleep in order to have good health and lengthen your age. According to National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, lack of sleep can cause a higher risk of many diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and stroke.^[1] It is important to get enough sleep, especially to have a longer lifespan. An article published in 2010 on the NHS website which is the UK's biggest health website proved this statement.^[2] In this article, a study found out that if you sleep less than 6 hours a day, you will suffer from higher risk of dying prematurely (12%) than people who sleep up to eight hours. However, just sleep enough because sleeping too much also is not good for adults’ health.

2. Drinking Enough Water

We all know that we can live without food for a month, but cannot live without water more than one week. Water is an indispensable part of everyday life. Drinking enough water helps you not only have good health but also strong skin. The American Health Council shows that drinking water is helpful for people who want to lose weight because it can lower their total daily calorie intake.^[3] Moreover, their consumption of saturated fat, sugar, sodium and cholesterol will also be reduced. Additionally, the National Education Association argues that drinking enough water helps improve digestion, mood and breath.^[4] According to a study in 2017 in Mayang, water with high quality which contains many useful elements like Ca, Cu, Fe, Se and Sr can protect the body from many diseases, including cancer as well as prolong human lifespan.^[5] Therefore, remember to drink enough water every day to have a longer life.

3. Have Positive Thinking

Do not just focus on improving the physical health, the mental health also plays an important role in prolonging the lifespan. A study published in 2010 indicated that people who are positive have a higher quality of life, in comparison with those who have low levels of optimism or even pessimists.^[6] There is a relationship between optimism and greater flexibility, problem-solving capacity and a more efficient elaboration of negative information. This study also showed that optimism can improve physical health. To be specific, living with positive thinking helps reduce 50% of the risk of cardio-vascular death. Moreover, according to research of Dr. Kaitlin Hagan and Dr. Eric Kim at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, women who are more positive are remarkably less likely to die from many major causes of death.^[7] This research pointed out that optimistic people had a 16% lower risk of dying from cancer, 38% lower risk of dying from heart disease, 39% lower risk of dying from stroke, 38% lower risk of dying from respiratory disease, and 52% lower risk of dying from infection. In contrast, pessimism can shorten the lifespan by causing many diseases. According to a study conducted in 2016, pessimism seems to be one of the significant risk factors for causing the death from coronary heart disease both in men and women.^[8]

4. Have Sex

Have you ever thought about the relationship between having sex and adding a few years to your life? According to Shanna Levine, MD, a primary care physician at Mount Sinai, achieving orgasm during sexual intercourse leads to release hormone oxytocin which has benefits on health. Moreover, a cohort study in 1997 shows that men with a high frequency of orgasm will have a lower mortality risk by 50% than men with a low frequency of orgasm.^[9]

5. Follow The Mediterranean Diet

In order to live longer, the daily diet is very important. The Mediterranean diet is an example. This diet focuses on eating more fruits, vegetables, nuts and healthy oils such as fish, olive oil. According to a study in 2017, using the Mediterranean diet may help you add 2 or 3 years to your life by reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality.^[10]

6. Have Active Brain

Keep your brain lazy is one way to shorten your life. A study of the National Institute on Aging in 2002 asked the participants to read, do puzzles, play cards, etc for 4.5 years.^[11] The scientists find out that who did these activities daily or every other day will have a lower risk of death by 47%.

7. Have Pets

The appearance of pets in your house can be an effective way to lengthen your life. A study in 2017 indicates that dogs bring to the households the lower risk of cardiovascular disease and reduce the risk of cardiovascular death.^[12]

8. Drink Coffee

Consuming coffee can help you reduce the risk of death, according to a study.^[13] To be specific, the risk of death reduces by 12% over 16 years in people who drink 350ml cup each day, and 18% for people who consume three cups a day.^[14] According to Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, a cup of coffee a day helps a man live more three months and a woman live more a month.^[15] This benefit of coffee comes from the antioxidants and health boosting compounds in coffee which fight against insulin resistance, reduce inflammation and improve liver function as well.

9. Say “No” To Smoking

As we know, smoking affects badly on health. Smoking causes a higher risk of having a stroke by at least 50%.^[16] Quitting smoking within 2 years helps reduce the risk of stroke a half. A study conducted in 2010 also showed the relationship between smoking and the increased risk of stroke.^[17] The second bad effect of smoking is causing cardiovascular disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking does harm blood vessels and makes them become thicken and narrower. Therefore, your heart will beat faster and your blood pressure increase.^[18] For the non-smokers, if they usually are in environmental tobacco smoke, they will have 20-30% excess risk of coronary heart disease.^[19] In addition, smoking a common cause of different types of cancer such as mouth, pharynx (upper throat), nose and sinuses, larynx (voice box), lung, etc.^[20] In the UK, 7 in 10 lung cancer caused by smoking. A study in 2008 indicated that smoking is related to almost 90% of lung cancer risk in men and 70 to 80% in women.^[21] Because smoking leads to many diseases, if you want to live longer, it is necessary to stop smoking. Cleveland Clinic argued that smoking makes people die earlier: 13.2 years for men and 14.5 years for women.^[22] Smokers from 35 to 39 years old quit smoking can live more an average of 6 to 9 years.^[23] Besides, if they stop smoking when they are from 65 to 69, their lives will last more 1 to 4 years.

10. Reduce Junk Food Consumption

Junk food is popular because it is easy to make and consume. However, although it is delicious, we should not eat this type of food. According to CNN, junk food is the reason of numerous cancers.^[24] The study in this article showed that people who consumed the most junk food could have a higher risk of colorectal, respiratory tract (lips, mouth, tongue, nose, throat, vocal cords and part of the esophagus and windpipe), and stomach cancers. Moreover, a study in 2012 found out many bad effects of junk food on health.^[25] Junk food contains saturated fats which when being used too much can cause obesity leading to the problems related to heart and other diseases. Junk food also has a high content of salt (sodium chloride). According to National Institutes of Health, consuming food with too much salt will cause high blood pressure – the reason for higher risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems.^[26] Instead of eating the junk food, to live longer, it is essential to eat more vegetables and fruits. Many studies published on Havard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s website showed that the appearance of vegetables and fruits in daily diet can reduce the blood pressure, the risk of heart disease and stroke and protect the body from some types of cancer as well.^[27] To be specific, a research on CNN concluded that eating 10 portions of fruit and vegetables per day helped you reduce 24% risk of heart disease, 33% risk of stroke, 28% risk of cardiovascular disease, 13% reduced risk total cancer, and 31% risk of dying prematurely.^[28] Even you just eat 200g or two and a half portions, the risk of cancer and premature death also will be lowered.^[29] Therefore, do not forget to add fruit and vegetables in your meals every day.

11. Doing Exercise

As we know, doing exercise is one of the best ways to improve physical health. There is an undeniable evidence of the association between doing physical activities and the lower risk of several chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis, especially premature death.^[30] A study in 1992 showed that people walked 30 minutes per day (or the equivalent energy in other activities) could improve health remarkably.^[31] In the US, there are probably 40 million adults who do not do exercise regularly will have higher risk of morbidity and mortality from several diseases.^[32] Not only physical health but also mental health receive the benefits from doing exercise. According to Havard Medical School, doing exercise regularly improves the brain health, then reduces stress and anxiety and helps you have a good sleep.^[33] If you want to have a long life expectancy, do not skip the exercise. A study conducted in 2012 stated that physical activities helped reduce about 30% to 35% risk of mortality.^[34] This study also mentioned that according to the results of 13 studies, the life expectancy could be increased 0.4 to 6.9 years when doing exercise regularly. In addition, sharing the same opinion, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) posts an article which says that physical activity is beneficial for maintaining a healthy body weight and bones and decreasing the risk of certain diseases such as cancers.^[35] Moreover, a team of researchers led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) pointed out that people who engaged in leisure-time physical activity could live longer as much as 4.5 years.^[36]

In conclusion, according to many studies, for better health now and longer life in the future, it is recommended to follow these habits mentioned above. Along with changing your lifestyle, do not forget to go to the doctor regularly to check your health condition and cure the diseases as fast as possible if you have.

We hope that after reading this article, you will gain some interesting and useful information, stop the bad habits and start the good ones. Remember that keeping yourself healthy is very important because just when you are healthy, you have the energy to study, to work and to spend happy time with family and friends.  All content provided is for informational & educational purposes. We recommend you consult a healthcare professional to check your health and have a reasonable diet.

Your questions or comments about our topic today are very welcomed in the comment box below. We are very happy to hear your opinions. Therefore, do not leave without putting your thinking. In short, please visit the News And Facts page to read more about the habits you should continue or you should avoid.