Healthy living cuts early death risk

LONDON: Women, please note — if you want to spend your later years free from diseases like cancer and heart ailment, it's time you adopt a healthier lifestyle. A new study has revealed that women could halve the risk of premature death if they exercise daily, eat healthily and keep their weight in check, the British Medical Journal reported in its latest edition.

In fact, researchers have found that following all four lifestyle tips could cut 44% of cancer and 72% of cardiovascular deaths in women.

According to lead researcher Dr Rob van Dam of Harvard Medical School, "In busy, modern life it's more difficult to adapt to these factors, but people don't have to spend hours lifting heavy weights.

"It's simple dietary changes like eating more whole grains and less red meat, walking to work and to the grocery shop, these really add up. And of course the thing to state is not to smoke."

In the 24-year study, 80,000 women, aged 34 to 59, completed questionnaires every two years about their diet, frequency of physical activity, alcohol intake, weight, how much they smoked, and disease history.

The researchers traced 28% of the 8,882 deaths to smoking while 55% were attributed to combination of smoking, being overweight, not doing enough exercise daily and a poor diet, the BBC News portal reported.

Drinking too much alcohol also contributed, but women with "light-to-moderate" alcohol consumption of upto one drink a day were less likely to die from cardiovascular diseases than teetotallers, the researchers found.

"It seems to be that drinking a little alcohol can lower the risk of heart disease, but you have to look at the overall picture too. People who drink a lot of alcohol have a higher risk of dying from cancer," Dam said.

Source: Times of India, Thursday, Sept 18th, 2008