Ever Too Late to Start Healthy Habits
Boosting Your Longevity Later in Life
To adopt an anti-aging lifestyle, starting to eat, well exercise regularly, quit smoking, as healthy habits can still have a significant effect on your health and longevity—even if you don't begin until after the age of 50.
Newly adopting a healthy lifestyle in middle age could still produce significant benefits, in terms of lower risk of heart disease and reduced mortality.
The subjects were examined for their weight, height, dietary intake, smoking habits and exercise.
Defining a Healthy Lifestyle
Each subject's lifestyle was graded, depending on four primary behaviors:
- Eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day
- Exercising at least two and a half hours (150 minutes) each week
- Maintaining a healthy weight as measured by a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5-30
- Not smoking
Poor Habits Get Better
- The most common switch was to begin eating at least five fruits and vegetables each day. A regular exercise habit was the second most common behavior change.
Who Struggled the Most to Launch Healthy Behaviors?
- Most likely to change habits for the better were older, female, those with a college education, higher income and without a history of hypertension.
- Subjects least likely to adopt the four primary habits were men
- lower income, those without a college education, and those with a history of either hypertension or diabetes.
The beneficial results were independent of gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and even previous history of illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension.
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