Currently, the average life span of human beings is at 70 years. Although this is so much better than the average of 40 years many, many years ago, researchers have discovered a technique to further increase your chances of living longer without compromising quality of life.
The secret: healthy lifestyle.
Although this term seems to be abused many times over, a group of researchers from Canada have decided to enumerate what they are. A healthy lifestyle includes engaging in activity of moderate intensity, keeping a healthy weight, and even drinking in moderation. The study doesn't mention maintaining a specific type of diet.
By keeping up with these activities, you can decrease your risk of dying by the time you're 65 years old by as much as 50 percent.
To come up with these results, the researchers looked into the rate of cardiac failure among Canadians. It turns out that half a million are diagnosed with it. A person is considered to be suffering from heart failure if the amount of blood supply that is pumped by the muscular organ is significantly less than what's needed by the body. Heart failure can lead to serious complications including heart attack. Cardiovascular disease, meanwhile, remains one of the leading causes of death around the world.
For the study, which h already been published in JACC (Journal of the American College of Cardiology), they monitored the health of almost 5,000 men and women whose average age was 72. All of them were at least 65 years old and weren't diagnosed with heart failure during the beginning of the study.
For the next 22 years, however, around 1,300 of them were eventually diagnosed with the condition. For those who weren't, they found out that most of them were engaged in healthy activities including brisk walking for at least 2 miles every hour. They were also more likely to burn around 800 calories or more every week.