A study done on 20,000 middle to senior aged people dived into the vague moniker of “being healthy”. The factors in the study used to rate the participants were how much they smoked, were they physically active, did they moderately drank alcohol, and did they consume five serving of fresh fruit and vegetables a day.
Basically as you did more of the good things, you would score closer to a 4, while scoring a 0 means you’re in deep trouble. In fact, scoring a 0 on the test raised the morality rate of the participant by 4 times. This means that the participant was four times more likely to not live long enough to make it to the follow-up study. The group that scored a 2 was two times as likely not to be alive for the follow-up study. And finally, the participants scoring a 4 were on average living 10 years longer.
The study also tried to define the all too often vaguely used phrases like, “Just eat healthy”, “Don’t drink too much”, and “Be more active”. They quantified what it really means to be healthy and developed the score range of 0 (very unhealthy) to 4 (doing well).
Paraphrasing something Dr. Dean Adell would say on this topic: Would it really be that great to live longer while probably at the lowest point in your health? What does it really means to extend ones life during a stage probably afflicted with some sort of illness or disability. It’s not generalizing, but in fact you’re more prone to illness in the late stages of life. So, in effect you’re extending that stay in a convalescent home by another few years.
Being healthy and staying fit isn’t like an investment. Investments pay off in the long run, while having good health pays off in the present. I’m not surprised there are seniors who still run marathons and compete in the Iron Man. I’m all for that, but the average person in their senior years won’t be in the same peak physical conditioning as someone a fourth their age.
Asking anyone who have stuck to a healthy living plan, they know that the future is highly overrated; it’s living now that counts.
source doc: Public Library of Science
