"Live Longer: Lifestyle Habits to Adopt"

 5 Lifestyle Habits That Will Help You Live Longer | Mark Mahoney

What it takes to live a long and healthy life is of continuing interest to everyone from the public to researchers. From cookbooks to inquire about papers to hundreds of articles effortlessly open with a Google look, there is a colossal sum of data to process and exhortation to consider.

But there are simple approaches and easy changes you can implement if you want to last longer.

In this column, I will focus on five lifestyle choices that I believe will help people live longer. These are based on research findings such as Dan Buettner's work on the "Blue Zones."

1. Healthy eating

September and October are the time to plant cool-season leafy greens.

Valter Longo, Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and director of the Longevity Institute at Southern University, who has been studying longevity for about 20 years, said "diet is by far the most important factor" in longevity. He told CNBC earlier this year.

Many experts who study the world's longest-living communities can't emphasize enough how much what you eat affects your lifespan. Longevity experts often recommend an eating pattern similar to the Mediterranean diet. According to Professor Longo and Dan Buettner (co-producer of the three-time Emmy Award-winning documentary miniseries "Living to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones"), a longevity expert who interviews centenarians and visits Blue Zones, a count calories for life span ought to be fundamentally plant-based and incorporate:

Bowl of sweet potato and black bean chili, with slices of cilantro and avocado, topped with oats, a heart-healthy recipe created by local nutritionist Anna Jones

No red meat

A solid sum of vegetables, particularly verdant greens

2. Get on the move often

Located on North Monroe Street, south of Tharp Street, Lake Ella is known for its paved walking trails, abundant waterfowl, and community of local businesses. "The Cottages," formerly part of a motel on the lake's west shore, has several small shops.

Some longevity experts recommend daily exercise, while others recommend daily low-intensity physical activity.

According to the New England Centenarian Study, strength training two times a week and aerobic exercise three times a week (even just 10 minutes a day) are among the daily exercises that increase your chances of living to age 90. In blue zones, physical activity is less strenuous, but even centenarians exercise daily, Buettner said in the Netflix documentary "Living to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones." Typically, blue zone residents walk from place to place, make things with their hands, and tend their own gardens, so they can get some light physical activity every day. "

3. Believe in something

As of the end of 2023, Buettner has interviewed 263 centenarians so far. All but five of these centenarians had a place to a confidence community, he composed in a Make It article.

"People who go to churches, temples, and mosques live four to 14 years longer than non-religious people," Buettner said in an episode of "Dan Harris' Ten Percent Happier."

According to Arthur C., people who have beliefs or life philosophies are happier than those who don't. Brooks, the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of Public Leadership and Business Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School, is a leading expert on happiness who teaches a free online course on the emotion of joy at Harvard University.

4. Maintain good relationships

Having positive relationships in your life is the most important thing you can do to live a longer, happier life.The ponder, which has been continuous for 86 a long time, found that individuals with solid, steady connections are more joyful, more advantageous, and live longer than those with powerless or tricky connections. Analysts call this "social versatility."
Researchers call this "social adaptability."

Maintaining social contact is also a value for Blue Zone centenarians. "Blue Zone people put their partners first, nurturing and investing in their relationships," Buettner said in the documentary.
. "Having the right companions is the greatest mystery for Blue Zone individuals to do the right things and dodge the off-base things."

5. Prioritize purpose and lifelong learning

In Okinawa, Japan, one of the Blue Zones with a high number of centenarians, ikigai (roughly translated as "always busy happiness") is considered an important value. The book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life is one of the most popular books on longevity and has become a global bestseller.

Ikigai means finding your purpose and working towards it every day. And that is exactly what Buettner recommends for longevity.

Researchers from an 86-year study of adult development at Harvard University have found seven habits that "help us to be happy and healthy as we age, rather than sad and sick," Brooks explains. One of these practices is to develop a growth mindset by investing in lifelong learning and education.