Health and Fitness

New Year resolutions could add years to your life

NewScientist.com news service

Debora MacKenzie

The millions of people resolving to live a healthier life in 2008 can take heart: four relatively simple, healthy behaviours may add 14 years to your life, say researchers. Even better, they help no matter how fat or unhealthy you are already.

Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues at Cambridge University in the UK monitored 20,000 people aged 45 to 79 in Norfolk for 11 years to see how death rates related to lifestyle.

�People have looked at this before,� says Khaw, �but only at one kind of behaviour, or at complex measures of diet or exercise. We wanted to measure things from everyday life so people know what they are.�

The team grouped people according to whether they said they did any of four healthy behaviours: not smoking, exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, and drinking alcohol moderately, when they joined the study.

People were counted as exercising if they did as little as an hour a week. And those with a certain level of vitamin C in their blood were considered to be eating enough fruit and vegetables. People who drank between one to fourteen units of alcohol a week � around nine 125 ml glasses of wine, or seven pints of 3-4% beer � were considered �moderate� drinkers as opposed to drinking none, or more.

Every little helps

The study found that for any given age, sex, social class, and level of obesity � all things that affect death rates � a person who did none of those things had the same chance of dying as a person 14 years older who did all those things. In other words, people doing all four healthy things effectively added 14 years to their lives.

And each healthy behaviour added up. People who did all four had a quarter as much risk of dying within a given time as people who did none, but people who did only two had half the risk.

�Even a little bit helps, and the more the better,� says Khaw. And the effect was just as dramatic in people who were already ill or who had other risk factors. �Being overweight is a health risk,� says Khaw. �But we found that these activities reduce your risk of dying by the same amount, whether you are overweight or lean.�

Journal reference: PLoS Medicine (vol 5 e12)

It�s no secret. Quitting is difficult. But you�ve got to do it.
Anyone who is a smoker knows that quitting can be one of the most difficult challenges of a lifetime. But as you can see from the statistics, you�re not only harming yourself, but also everyone around you, especially the children. You may have to try and try again, but consider these substantial and immediate health benefits from quitting:

Immediately upon quitting: Blood circulation increases, blood pressure and heart rate quickly improve and the carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in the blood soon return to normal. (Blood pressure levels return to pre-smoking levels within 20 minutes.)
Within a few days of quitting: Breathing becomes easier and the senses of smell and taste improve.
Within two-three months of quitting: Lung function improves up to 30 percent.
One year after quitting: Risk of coronary heart disease is reduced by 50 percent.
Five to fifteen years after quitting: The risk of stroke is similar to that of a non-smoker. The risk of developing cancers of the mouth, throat and esophagus lessen significantly.
Ten years after quitting: The risk of developing lung cancer is 30 to 50 percent below that of a person who continues to smoke.
Fifteen years after quitting: The additional risk of heart disease is the same as someone who never smoked.
People aged 60 to 64 years of age who quit smoking are 10 percent less likely to die during the next 15 years than regular smokers.
The benefit is even greater for individuals who quit smoking before the age of 50. Their risk of dying in the next 15 years is half that of a person who smokes.
If you�ve had a heart attack and quit smoking, you can reduce your risk of recurrent heart attack or sudden cardiac death by as much as fifty percent.

What works to help quit smoking?
Seventy percent of smokers report that they want to quit, but less than 5 percent of smokers who attempt to quit are able to stay tobacco-free for 3�12 months. Although quitting smoking is difficult, it�s not impossible. Recent research has found that there are a lot of things that work in tobacco cessation treatment including treatment with medications (pharmacotherapy), counseling and social support. The most important thing that has been learned from this research is that it is the combination of these tactics that works the best.

Treatment with medications (Pharmacotherapy)
Pharmacotherapy can more than double the likelihood of successful quitting. Over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) includes gum, the patch and lozenges. Prescription drugs available include brands with the drug bupropion (an anti-depressant), an NRT inhaler and an NRT nasal spray. Research reported in �Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence� Clinical Practice Guidelines, prepared by the US Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service, rates the increased likelihood of quit success by available drugs as:

Type of Pharmacotherapy	Increase in Likelihood of Quitting
Nicotine Gum	50 percent
Nicotine Patch	90 percent
Nicotine Nasal Spray	170 percent
Nicotine Inhaler	180 percent
Bupropion	110 percent

NRT may not be suitable if you're pregnant or have heart disease. Please read the American Heart Association recommendations on NRT.

Treatment through counseling
The Clinical Practice Guideline reports that treating nicotine addiction with counseling increases the likelihood of quitting by 20�70 percent. This includes individual, group or telephone counseling. Broken down, the increased likelihood of quit success with counseling is:

Type of Counseling	Increase in Likelihood of Quitting
Telephone	20 percent
Group	30 percent
Face-to-Face	70 percent