Mirror.co.uk - Sex & Health - Slimming & Health - 9 WAYS TO LIVE LONGER
UK’s Mirror recently had an article detailing nine ways to live longer. Some are relatively obvious (quit smoking.) Others are more obscure (switch to chill-out FM) and still others are welcome news (drink more coffee). The list:
Mirror.co.uk - Sex & Health - Slimming & Health - 9 WAYS TO LIVE LONGER
1 Look in the mirror and quit smoking
YOU’VE heard a million times how smoking is bad for you, but now new research from The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has revealed that looking in the mirror might tell you exactly how much damage the habit has done you. The study found that the more wrinkles a smoker has, the more likely they are to develop a life-threatening disease, such as emphysema.
2 Cook some broccoli
THIS is the king of life-extending foods and we should be eating it at least three or four times a week to stay healthy. It’s so powerful that this green has been linked to a lower risk of breast, bowel and lung cancers.
3 Book a smear test
SMEAR tests detect changes in the cels of the cervix before they become cancerous - which might explain why the majority of women diagnosed with actual cervical cancer are those who haven’t had a smear test in the last three years.
4 Switch to “chill-out” FM
YOU might like listening to dance music while you’re driving, but research from Ben Guiron University in Israel has found that listening to fast music in the car makes people more likely to speed and makes them twice as likely to jump a red light.
5 Microwave your BBQ
MEAT eaters suffer higher cancer rates than vegetarians, and it used to be that fat levels were blamed. Increasingly experts are pointing the finger at carcinogenic compounds that form on meat when it’s cooked.
6 Buy a tape measure
WRAP it around your waist to find your measurement. If you’re a woman and the result reads more than 35 inches, or a man who measures over 40 inches, you’re carrying too much fat around your middle and as a result have a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
7 Have a cup of coffee
DETOX enthusiasts might hate it but it’s becoming increasingly likely that having a cup of coffee in the morning could save your life. It’s been linked to a lower risk of liver cancer, alcoholic liver damage, breast cancer, Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and others.
In fact you shouldn’t feel guilty for anything up to five cups a day. Any more than this and few extra benefits are seen, but some negative effects (including caffeine addiction and a higher risk of brain haemorrhage) do start to kick in.
8 Look after your telomeres
TELOMERES are the little caps that seal the ends of your chromosomes, and they seem to make the major decision about how fast you age, and potentially how long you live as they could be linked to cancer development. So far, three main things have been shown to attack telomeres - smoking, obesity, and long-lasting stress, which seems to attack the enzyme, called telomerase, that re-builds telomeres when they get damaged.
9 Walk 4,857 steps
TEN thousand steps might be the amount that will improve your fitness, but roughly half that is all you need take to save your life, says a new research study called the STRRIDE trial being carried out in the US. The trial found that people walking 12 miles a week, that’s an about 4,857 steps a day, had positive reductions in 17 life-saving measures including waist size, cholesterol level and the amount of insulin in their body. Buy yourself a pedometer and get walking - 3,400 steps is roughly a 30-minute steady walk.