Healthy lifestyle could add 5 years to life regardless of genes: study

Health

By Alexandra Klausner

According to the first study of its kind, running could compensate for hereditary diseases.

A healthy lifestyle, which includes things like exercising regularly, sleeping well, not smoking and eating a healthy diet, can add more than five years to your life, according to a study published in the journal BMJ Evidence- Based Medicine.

Some people’s genes put them at risk of premature death, but the study found that a healthy lifestyle can counteract a person’s genetics by 62 percent.

Researchers from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland used data from more than 353,000 people. They analyzed their genetics, education, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and disease history.

People were assigned a polygenetic score, a score used to determine the impact of certain genes on lifespan and a score to determine how healthy their lifestyle was. They followed the participants for an average of 13 years.

During this period, 24,239 deaths occurred.

The study found that people with unhealthy lifestyles had a 78% increased risk of dying prematurely, regardless of their genetic risk.

People who ate a healthy diet, exercised regularly and never smoked increased their chances of living longer and healthier lives.

“Participants with high genetic risk could extend their life expectancy by approximately 5.22 years to 40 years with a favorable lifestyle,” the authors write.

“Genetic and lifestyle factors were independently associated with lifespan. Adhering to healthy lifestyles could largely mitigate the genetic risk of shorter life expectancy or premature death. The optimal combination of healthy lifestyles could provide better benefits for a longer lifespan, regardless of genetic background,” they concluded.