Live Longer by Making Small Changes

by WiredBerries Editors — January 14, 2008

Apparently living longer - and better - isn't all that difficult. In a British study published in the journal PLoS Medicine, people with the following four healthy lifestyle behaviors live an average of 14 years longer than people with none of those behaviors:

• Not smoking
• Physical activity
• Moderate alcohol consumption
• Eating five servings of fruit or vegetables a day

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council looked at 20,000 men and women, aged 45 to 79, who filled out a questionnaire about the four health behaviors. The participants, none of whom had known cancer or heart or circulatory disease, filled out the questionnaire between 1993 and 1997 and were followed until 2006. Seems like a pretty simple plan to add over a decade to your life!