The seven
golden rules for a healthy life: Simple lifestyle steps can help prevent cancer
and heart disease, say experts
Seven simple steps can slash the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease
by up to 50 per cent, according to a landmark study.
Adhering to at least six of the 'Life's Simple 7' list of lifestyle choices
from the American Heart Association reduced the risk of an early death, say
researchers.
The seven golden rules are being physically active, keeping a healthy
weight, eating a healthy diet, maintaining healthy cholesterol levels, keeping
blood pressure down, regulating blood sugar levels and not smoking.
Living longer: Seven simple steps can
slash the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease by up to 50 per cent,
according to a landmark study
When smoking status was not considered, people who met five or six of the remaining six factors had a 25
per cent lower cancer risk than those who met none.
The list was originally compiled by the American Heart Association to ward
off heart disease. However, new research shows they can also help prevent
cancer.
Lead author Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, an assistant professor at the
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said : “We were
gratified to know adherence to the Life's Simple 7 goals was also associated
with reduced incidence of cancer. This can help health professionals provide a
clear, consistent message about the most important things people can do to
protect their health and lower their overall risk for chronic diseases”
Adhering to six or seven of the factors reduced the risk of cancer by
51 per cent, compared with people who
met none of the factors. Meeting four factors led to a 33 per cent risk
reduction and one or two, a 21 per cent reduction.
Life's Simple 7 is part of the association's My Life Check campaign that
advises Americans to adhere to seven factors for a healthy heart.
Step 1 :
BEING PHYSICALLY ACTIVE
“Exercising helps lower cholesterol and
blood sugar”
Experts are increasingly concerned about
the amount of time we spend sitting. Last month Kansas State
University researchers warned that office workers could be risking their
health simply by sitting at their desk.
They found that people who spend more than four hours a day sitting
down are at greater risk of chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and
heart disease.
Those sitting for at least six hours were
significantly more likely to have diabetes.
Research published last month from
Leicester University recommended that people at high risk of developing
diabetes may be able to escape the condition by cutting the time they spending
sitting down by 90 minutes every day.
They found important risk factors for Type
2 diabetes, such as blood glucose and cholesterol levels, improved far more in
people told to sit less, compared with those doing required amounts of
exercise.
Step 2 :
QUITTING SMOKING
Harmful : Quitting smoking is very
important to maintain a healthy lifestyle
“Quitting smoking is very important”,
said Dr Rasmussen-Torvik. “It's never too late to change, and if you
make changes like quitting smoking and improving your diet, you can reduce your
risk for both cardiovascular disease and cancer”
They come after German researchers announced last month that
quitting smoking in middle age or beyond still has significant health benefits.
Even lifelong smokers who gave up smoking later on in life still
experienced a massive 40 per cent reduction in the risk of heart attack and
stroke within just five years.
The study followed nearly 9,000 German
people aged between 50 and 74 years for ten years.
Professor Hermann Brenner and his colleagues from the German Cancer
Research Centre were able to show that smokers were at double the risk
of developing heart disease compared to non-smokers, but that former smokers were at almost the same low rate as people of the
same age who have never smoked.
Meanwhile, a Canadian study published
earlier this year demonstrated that people
who give up smoking by the age of 44 can live almost as long as those who
have never smoked.
“Quitting smoking before age 40, and
preferably well before 40, gives back almost all of the decade of lost life
from continued smoking”, study leader Professor Prabhat Jha.
The researchers found that people who quit smoking between the
ages of 35 and 44 gained about nine years and those who quit between ages 45-54 and 55-64 gained six and four
years of life, respectively.
Step
3 : CONTROLLING BLOOD SUGAR
“High blood sugar increases the risk of
diabetes”
High blood sugar increases the risk of
diabetes and, in turn, complications of the disease such as blindness, kidney
disease and nerve damage.
The risk of heart disease is five times
higher in middle aged men with diabetes and eight times higher in women with
diabetes.
Diabetes UK estimates that the life expectancy of someone with type
2 diabetes is likely to be reduced as a result of the condition by up to 10
years.
Results of a 30 year study by the
University of Pittsburgh, published in 2012, noted that people with type 1
diabetes born after 1965 had a life expectancy of 69 years.
Step 4 :
KEEPING A HEALTHY WEIGHT
Watching weight : “A recent study in The
Lancet found that obesity and its associated diseases was one of the key reasons
for an early death”
Having a BMI above the 'ideal' range of
22.5 to 25 increases the risk of an early death., according to a recent study.
Above BMI of 25, each additional five
units on the BMI scale increased overall mortality by around a third.
The investigation, called the Prospective
Studies Collaboration, pooled information on 894,576 adults mostly from western
Europe and North America with an average age of 46 and an average BMI of 25.
As well as looking at overall death rates,
the researchers linked BMI scores with common causes of death through ill
health.
Each additional five BMI units
corresponded with a 40 per cent increase in deaths from heart and artery
disease and strokes.
Step 5 :
MAINTAINING HEALTHY BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS
“Untreated high blood pressure can lead to
heart failure”
High blood pressure or hypertension means that your blood
pressure is constantly higher than the recommended level.
Over time, if it is not treated, the heart
may become enlarged, making it pump less effectively, which could lead to heart
failure.
A recent study in The Lancet found that smoking was the top
reason for an early death in the UK, accounting for 12 per
cent, followed by high blood pressure, obesity, lack of exercise, alcohol and
poor diet.
The alarming report shows that despite huge advances in cancer
screening, immunisations and a smoking ban, life expectancy is not
increasing as rapidly in Briton compared to other nations.
Step 6 :
EATING A HEALTHY DIET
“Eating a Mediterranian diet could add an
extra three years to your life”
Eating a Mediterranian style diet can cut
heart attacks, strokes and death rates in people at high risk of heart disease
by as much as a third, research shows.
Changing the balance of foods in a diet
can lessen the risk even before heart-related illness strikes, according to a
major Spanish clinical trial.
Meanwhile, Swedish researchers have
calculated the regime could add an extra three years to your life.
They say a Mediterranian style diet is a rich source of chemicals called anti-oxidants
that fight cancer, heart disease and can slow the ageing process.
Scientists who studied the eating habits of 1,200 over-70s found that
those following a Mediterranean-style diet tended to live for two or three
years longer.
The Mediterranean diet is widely
recommended as a healthy eating plan by doctors and nutritionists as it is high
in fruits, vegetables, fish and wholegrain cereals and low in meat and dairy,
which contain large amounts of saturated fats.
Traditionally olive oil rather than butter
is used in cooking, as well as for dressing salads and moistening bread.
This is high in monounsaturated fat, which
is thought to protect against heart disease.
Step 7 :
MAINTAINING HEALTHY CHOLESTEROL LEVELS
“Too much cholesterol in the blood causes the
arteries to harden and narrow”
Too much cholesterol in the blood causes
the arteries to harden and narrow. This slows down and may eventually block
blood flow to the heart, causing a heart attack.
Participants in the 'Life's Simple 7'
list study included 13,253 white and African-American men and women in the
ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, launched in 1987 in four
U.S. communities.
They were interviewed and examined at the
start of the study to determine which health factors they met or followed.
About 20 years later, the researchers
reviewed cancer registries and hospital records and determined that 2,880 of
the participants ended up with cancer, primarily of the lung, colon or rectum,
prostate and breast.
*note : the statement that underlining and boldface is an
example of “Relative Pronoun”
