Your life expectancy can be protected by making sure you don't take any unnecessary risks.
For young people, the biggest causes of death aren't diseases or age-related problems. The most common causes are accidents, injuries, and violence.
As you get older, there are certain risk behaviors that also correspond to a significant loss of life years.
According to a 2021 study in the journal Aging, these include:
Prolonged sitting: Loss of 2-4 years
High blood pressure: Loss of 4-5 years
Being chronically underweight: Loss of 4-8 years
Smoking: Loss of 5-7 years
Alcohol abuse: Loss of 5-7 years
Physical inactivity: Loss of 5-7 years
Type 2 diabetes: Loss of 7-10 years
By having several co-occurring risk factors, you compound the risk. For example, inactive people with diabetes and obesity have anywhere from an 8- to 13-year loss of life.
How Lifestyle and Habits Affect Biological Aging
Other things that can put you at risk without knowing it:
The slowing decay of your body is the number one risk
Your body is like a machine in some respects. Diet and some form of exercise is necessary to keep your body functions working properly. You don't have to get a gym membership to stay fit. I remember my grandparents very well. They spend their days working around the house in the kitchen, and in the garden from sun up to sundown. Very seldom saw a doctor, and lived a long life into their 80s. For people born in the 1880s that was a long life.
The point is that they spent their lives on their feet keeping up the house, cooking, and cleaning. Television was for Sundays. Even my parents lived a healthier lifestyle until they retired. After that, they fell into the same trap that we do today. Eat out at least once a day and watch TV when they are home. So why would they change their lives at that age?
The 1980s were much like today except for the internet and cell phones. We still live in the same houses, go to the same schools, and shop in the same supermarkets and malls. Yes, everything has been modernized over the years and a few things have been added, but if you just woke up after sleeping for 35 years, the older parts of the cities and states haven't changed much. But for my parents who grew up before WWll, the world was a much different place in the 1980s. They tried to live a more modern life by taking advantage of modern conveniences. They liked eating fast food. They started buying TV dinners. These were things they never did when they were working. The problem was that they weren't taking care of themselves and their health started to decline.
They had increased their risk without realizing it just by changing their lifestyle. We all have done something similar ourselves. If you move or even change jobs you might have changed your lifestyle without noticing it, and increased your risk without realizing it. We can all get into a trap at work and lose track of our personal lives.
Your lifestyle has to come first. You work so you can live better. You don't live to work. The newest generation of workers has figured that out. And maybe that is why they are demanding a better work life.
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