Eighteen Suggestions For A Longer And Happier Life

Eighteen Tips for Extending Your Lifespan!

Everyone wants to live a long and healthy life, but there isn't just one simple and easy way to do it. Here are eighteen steps that you can take in your everyday life to help you increase the odds of seeing 80, 90, or even 100 years or more!

Safeguard Your DNA to Live Longer

Healthy DNA helps us live longer in a number of different ways. Healthy DNA reduces the risk of cancer because genetic mutations are a significant contributor to cancer risk.

In the past, many scientists believed that there was a hard limit to the length of time that human beings could live because of our telomeres. Telomeres function like aglets on your shoelaces. They keep your shoelaces from becoming frayed and ripping apart by capping the ends. Telomeres are the caps to the ends of our DNA, and they function in a similar fashion.

Over time, the tips of the telomeres slowly break down, which increases the risk of health and aging conditions related to genetic breakdown. In a recent study, researchers proved that changing one's lifestyle to incorporate healthier habits seems to have the ability to increase the length of the telomeres. Further research shows that exercise and diet also have the ability to strengthen telomeres.

This means that taking the advice in this article likely will be able to improve your health even at a genetic level!

Live Conscientiously to Live Longer

An eighty-year longitudinal study has shown that one of the strongest and most reliable factors which contribute to a long life is a personality grounded in conscientiousness. In this lengthy study, researchers considered a large variety of personality attributes to see which factors helped people live longer, such as persistence and attention to detail.

Researchers found that conscientiousness was one of the strongest correlations between personality and long life. People that considered how the things that they did affect themselves and others were more likely to live longer because they were more likely to make thoughtful life decisions.

They were more likely to take steps to maintain and safeguard their health, and they were also more likely to choose careers and relationships that fit them in a healthy way. They also had more impactful and healthy relationships and tended to be more successful in their careers.

Maintain Strong Friendships to Live Longer

There is also strong evidence that sharing your life with others has the ability to improve your health and your life. Keeping strong connections with your friends has the ability to help you live longer, and this correlation is stronger the older you happen to be.

An Australian study showed that elderly individuals who were active socially in fostering friendships with others were likelier to live longer than those who were not as active socially. Elderly men and women with more friends were more likely to still be alive after ten years than those with fewer friends.

A full research review of nearly 150 studies also strongly reinforces this correlation between positive social activity and longevity.

Pick Your Friends Intelligently to Live Longer

Although strong friendships may help you live longer later in life, poor friendships can also have a negative impact on your longevity throughout your lifespan. Choosing friends that make positive life and health choices makes it more likely that you will also make intelligent and proactive decisions with regard to your health.

In one series of studies, a strong correlation was found between having a friend gain weight and gaining weight yourself. If one of your friends gains a lot of weight and becomes obese, this increases your odds of becoming obese by nearly sixty percent.

People with friends who smoke are also more likely to start smoking themselves, and if you surround yourself with smokers, it is much harder to quit. In this case, like many others, making positive life changes can have a positive effect on those around you. If you are actually successful in quitting smoking, it makes it more likely that others around you will quit as well, and the same goes for losing weight!

This applies to younger people in more ways. If you surround yourself with others that are taking significant risks, such as driving fast, taking drugs, or other risky behaviors, it increases your risk of early mortality significantly.

Stop Smoking to Live Longer

These days, everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but many people keep smoking, resigned to the mistaken belief that the damage has already been done. In fact, there are strong and powerful benefits to quitting smoking, no matter how young you were when you picked up the habit or how old you were when you chose to quit.

Many people also feel that the benefit of quitting at a later age is overshadowed by the difficulty of quitting, but this also appears to be a huge mistaken belief. Researchers in Great Britain conducted a fifty-year longitudinal study that showed the benefits of smoking cessation at a variety of different ages.

They found that individuals who stopped smoking by the age of thirty lived, on average, ten years longer than those who continued smoking throughout their life. Those that quit at forty lived nine years longer. Those that quit at fifty lived six years longer, and those that quit at sixty lived three years longer on average.

Taking Naps Can Help Your Live Longer

In America, many people think frequent napping is a sign of laziness, but there is strong evidence that taking naps regularly does have a protective effect on the heart. In many areas of the world, afternoon naps are an ingrained part of the culture, and scientific evidence shows that naps may be a proper and healthy aspect of day-to-day activity.

Researchers conducted a broad study, researching over 24,000 men and women. They found that, regardless of sex, individuals that napped regularly had a greater than 35% risk of dying from heart disease at a given age than those who only napped occasionally.

Scientists hypothesize that napping may strengthen the heart by reducing stress hormones such as cortisol levels. Stress hormones are beneficial in emergency situations or over short time spans, but chronic stress wreaks all sorts of havoc on the cardiovascular system, as well as other systems of the body.

Eat Like a Mediterranean to Live Longer

The Mediterranean lifestyle has done wonders to enhance our knowledge of how diet affects lifespan and life quality. In the Mediterranean, people tend to have a diet that is high in fish, whole grains, veggies, fruits, and heart-healthy oils, which helps them live longer.

A review of fifty studies including more than 500,000 men and women from the Mediterranean provided powerful evidence that this lifestyle was highly conducive to a long life. In particular, researchers found that this form of diet greatly reduces the odds of experiencing metabolic syndrome, which has a starkly negative impact on lifespan.

Metabolic Syndrome is the name for a collection of related conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, obesity, and atherosclerosis which all vastly increase the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Choose the Okinawan Diet

The residents of Okinawa, Japan, were once recognized for living longer than anyone else on earth. Scientists have conducted a number of studies regarding the members of this culture and found that their diet had a powerful impact on their unique ability to live longer than anyone else in the world.

Residents of Okinawa have classically followed a very traditional diet centered around yellow and green vegetables, which contributed to their longevity. In addition to this, Okinawans naturally subsisted on restricted diets, which also appears to have extended their life spans. In Okinawa, it has long been a strong tradition to only eat eighty percent of the food served in a meal.

Recent changes in life expectancy in younger Okinawans also support the hypothesis that diet allowed these Japanese to live longer and healthier lives. As younger Okinawans have turned away from these traditional dietary habits, they no longer live the long lives that their elders experienced.

Get Hitched to Live Longer

Being single may have its benefits, but it is not conducive to a long lifespan. On average, married couples live longer than their single cohorts. There are a number of different reasons for this, some psychological, some social.

Many scientists believe that the economic and interpersonal support necessary in a healthy marriage helps those in the marriage live longer. Anecdotally, this can be seen in couples that live long lives together and die nearly simultaneously. The connection to the partner increases the desire and will to live, and once the partner is gone, this often causes the other to lose the inner strength which keeps them going.

Even in the case of those that have been widowed or divorced, a previous marriage seems to have a positive impact on mortality. Those that have been married earlier in their life also tend to live longer than those that have never been married.

Drop the Pounds to Live Longer

One of the most powerful things that you can do to help yourself live a longer, happier, and healthier life is simply to lose weight. Obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for a wide variety of health conditions. Obesity increases the risk of both Testosterone Deficiency and HGH Deficiency. It also vastly increases the likelihood of diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

The worst form of fat in regard to your health is known as adipose fat. Adipose fat cells are located mostly around your midsection, stomach, and thighs, and they are simultaneously the hardest form of fat to get rid of and the most dangerous to both your short-term and long-term health. A five-year study of African Americans and Hispanics has shown that engaging in healthy exercise habits and consuming more fiber are two particularly strong ways to burn belly fat.

Simply dieting can show some improvement, but studies have shown that if one diet does not combine it with exercise, the individual is more likely to burn muscle before fat, which reduces the benefits of dieting and can negatively impact health as muscle mass contributes strongly to positive health.

Exercise Regularly to Live Longer

Whether you are at a healthy weight or you are overweight, engaging in regular exercise can have a spectacular impact on your overall health and outlook. People that engage in healthy exercise habits clearly live longer lives than those that commit to a more sedentary lifestyle.

A multitude of studies has outlined the various benefits. Exercising on a regular basis alleviates depression, reduces cancer risk, and diminishes the risk of diabetes, stroke, and cancer. Cardiovascular exercise works out the heart and the circulatory system, and anaerobic exercise stimulates the muscles and strengthens the structural capacity of the body, defending against frailty.

There is even scientific evidence that physical activity positively impacts cognitive health, reducing the risk of general cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Ideally, you should engage in moderate physical activity for at least 150 minutes each week.

Drink Moderately to Live Longer

In the not-so-distant past, many people believed that alcohol had a universally negative impact on health, but in recent decades, it is becoming more and more clear that mankind has evolved to incorporate alcohol consumption into health.

People that drink moderately are less likely to experience heart disease than others that don't drink anything. Alcohol does seem to have some anti-oxidant effects on the body when imbibed in moderation, but long-term, heavy drinking counteracts these benefits with a negative impact on liver health.

Over-consumption of alcohol can also lead to other health problems such as obesity, increased blood pressure, and cognitive decline, so it is important to be judicious with alcohol consumption. To experience the optimum benefit of alcohol consumption with the minimum risk of negative effects, the American Heart Association suggests that men drink two alcoholic beverages per day and women drink one daily.

This isn't to say that those that do not drink should take up the habit, however. There are a number of different ways to safeguard your heart rather than drinking, and if you aren't interested in drinking, there is no reason to start simply for your health.

Engage in Spiritual or Self-Reflective Activity to Live Longer

Research shows there is at least some link between religious activity and longevity. People who go to church or attend other forms of spiritual gathering live longer lives on average than those who have never attended church.

In a twelve-year research study conducted with a pool of participants older than 65, men and women who went to religious services weekly had stronger immune health than others who did not attend church. In addition, those who attended services had a much lower mortality rate than those who did not.

There are a number of hypotheses why this is true, but the strongest seems to be that religious activity fosters strong social ties that help people keep themselves going. Simply the pleasure derived from interacting and acting collectively with others has powerful physiological effects.

If you are not religious, think about participating in group meditation, yoga, or any activity that allows you to be in the company of other people with whom you can share experiences. It is likely that participating and fostering a sense of community in any aspect will produce similar effects to those that are experienced by spiritual individuals in regard to health and wellness.

Forgive Others to Live Longer

Anger and grudges have been scientifically shown to have a devastating effect on health, especially if they are held for an extended period of time. These sorts of strong, negative feelings are linked to many diseases and conditions associated with increased stress hormone levels.

Strong and long-term bottling of anger contributes to an increased risk of stroke and heart disease, reduced lung capacity, and other ailments. Fostering an ability to accept forgiveness has been shown to increase lung capacity, improve blood pressure, and alleviate anxiety. The older you get, the more these benefits will impact your overall health.

Wear Safety Equipment

Among people of all ages, accidents are the fifth highest cause of death in the United States and the number one mortality risk for young people from the age of one to twenty-four. The simplest way to dramatically reduce your risk of mortality caused by accidents is to wear safety equipment.

Wearing seat belts, helmets, and other safety gear will provide tremendous benefits to your overall lifespan from your first steps to your last breath, especially for younger people that are less experienced with activities like driving and more likely to engage in activities such as skateboarding and cycling which can be risky without safety gear.

If you get in a major automobile accident, simply wearing your seatbelt can reduce your risk of serious injury or death by half. In regard to bicycle and motorcycle accidents, most deaths occur as a result of traumatic head and brain injuries, and a helmet can improve your odds of an accident tremendously.

Make Sure You Get Your Sleep to Live Longer

Sleep is just as important as exercise and diet for a healthy life. Getting a full night's sleep can significantly reduce the risk of experiencing several negative health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and a variety of mood disorders.

Sleep is when your body recovers from the day's activity and reorders itself to prepare for a new day. This is also when certain important hormones are produced at their highest levels, including Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone.

If you don't get enough sleep, your body doesn't maintain a healthy hormone balance, and unhealthy cortisol and stress levels are directly related to poor sleeping habits.

If you sleep well, your memory and cognitive faculties remain stronger, you are more resistant to illness, and you just generally maintain a happier and more positive outlook. 5-7 hours of sleep still provides some benefits, but 8-9 are maximally optimal. Sleeping fewer than five hours, on the other hand, can be dangerous and greatly increase your mortality risk while sleeping poorly.

Keep Stress Managed to Live Longer

You may think of stress as a psychological issue that impacts your mental health, but stress is actually a physiological process that affects every aspect of your mind and body and ideally needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible in order to improve health.

There is even research that patients with heart disease may be able to actually improve the health of their heart by working hard to alleviate their stress levels. So stress contributes to heart disease and may be a primary contributor to the condition.

Stress also makes it harder to sleep, harder to lose weight, and harder to maintain hormone balance. There are a number of effective ways to manage stress. You can engage in a few physical activities: deep breathing, meditation, and yoga. You can also work to balance the stresses in your life with the things that sustain you in order to help you live a healthier and longer life.

Live a Life with Purpose

This ties in with a number of other suggestions that we have made today, like having a healthy marriage and engaging in the valuable interpersonal activity. In order to live a long life, it seriously helps to live a life that you personally feel is worth living. What that means is up to you. What are your values? What makes you feel like a productive, active, and happy person?

For each human being, this will be different. In one Japanese study, scientists discovered that males with a defined sense of purpose had a much lower risk of mortality from a variety of sources, including heart disease and stroke, over thirteen years, as compared with men who self-identified with less purpose in their lives.

An American study has shown a reverse correlation between Alzheimer's and purpose. Men and women that feel that they are living a life driven by purpose are much less likely on average to experience Alzheimer's disease in their life, especially at an early age.

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