You’ve Heard All This Before – But It’s the Key to Longer Life

The likelihood of contracting cardiovascular disease is lessened if you are slim, exercise regularly, don’t smoke, and eat your fruit and veggies.  But just how much better off are you, when you fulfill all these conditions?  An article in the Archives of Internal Medicine provides the answer. 

The researchers followed over 23,650 men aged 30 or older for almost 15 years, as members of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study.  During this time there were 482 non-fatal heart attacks and 1,034 deaths from non-cardiac causes.

Men with a normal waistline, who kept physically active, and didn’t smoke, were significantly less likely to have a cardiovascular event (heart attack, stroke, severe angina, or cardiac death) than any of those who had one of these risk factors.  Compared with men who had all 3 risk factors, men without any of them had a 59% lower risk of having a cardiovascular event, and a 77% lower risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease.  Put another way, men who smoked, were inactive, and who had a waist of more than 37 inches had a life expectancy that was 14 years shorter than that of the ‘super’ men.  Now that’s an impressive number!