Everyone wants to live a happy and long life, but only a few people can do it. What is the reason? How can you live a longer life in the 21st Century? Let’s understand today.
There is no secret to living longer because almost everyone lived a long life until a few decades ago, but as we changed our lifestyle, we started getting the impact of it on our life and the overall quality of it. However, we can still make some changes today and get back on track to living a longer life even in the 21st Century.
# 1. Stay Alive
You have to stay alive to live longer. It might sound like an obvious or perhaps a silly rule, but this is not. Staying alive is not associated only with breathing. It means to live in the moment instead of staying absent all the time. Having a good social life can help you enjoy the moments and is one of the best ways.
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Lisa Berkman, director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and Thomas D. Cabot, Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, cited other studies that have suggested that social isolation carries a risk of mortality that similar to that of other major risk factors, such as smoking.
A recent research of 148 studies found that people who are isolated face a 50% greater risk of premature death than those with stronger social connections.
# 2. Avoid Substances
We have seen taglines like “Smoking thrills, but it kills”, and that’s completely true. The data of American Addiction Centres shows that if a user takes cocaine once a day, they would lose almost 14% of their life. If a user takes heroin five times a day, they would lose over 60% of their life.
That’s why it is important to avoid any substances that may risk your entire life. If you are avoiding it, then you are automatically adding some extra years, and as a result, your life expectancy will increase.
# 3. Eat Healthy Food
We become what we eat, so it is essential to focus on nutrition instead of completely focusing on the taste part of any food. Avoiding junk food and giving priority to healthy food always helps not only to maintain good health but also to increase life expectancy.
Dr Alexander Herbert Imich was a Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, zoologist and writer born in 1903 and passed away in 2014. He lived the life of 111 years.
While talking with NBC New York, he said he stayed in tip-top shape with a lifetime of healthy eating and abstinence from alcohol. His diet included chicken and fish.
So the rule is simple, maintain a healthy diet and follow it your whole life. You can also go through the article “Eat Well, To Live Well – Importance of Healthy Eating” written by Dr Neha on Nearmonk, where she talked in depth about healthy eating.
# 4. Be Active Everyday
Most people believe that they prefer staying in bed in the morning instead of going out and doing exercise. If you want to live longer, then you should be the one who is regularly doing exercise. It helps your body stay healthy, keeps your mind fresh, and ultimately helps you live longer.
According to the research published in The National Center for Biotechnology Information, “Physical activity reduces many major mortality risk factors including arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer. All-cause mortality is decreased by about 30% to 35% in physically active as compared to inactive subjects.”
Thus, it is important to be active daily and prioritise physical activity. Make it a discipline, and it will help you to live longer.
# 5. Take Frequent Rest
Staying active doesn’t mean always exhausting yourself. Our body is not a machine; thus, it needs to rest frequently.
Gertrude Weaver, born in 1898, lived a great life of 116 years and passed away in 2015. She was the oldest living person on the earth at some point. She also believed that she was able to live a long life due to not drinking or smoking and getting plenty of sleep.
Make sure you understand your body’s signals, and don’t hesitate to take the required rest. It helps in living a longer life.
# 6. Always Stay Young
It is impossible to have the same age over certain years because we are biologically designed to grow and change. However, here I am talking about having a young mindset. Always staying up to date with the world, getting more knowledge, and engaging with new positive things will help you to live longer. It will give you challenges at every point, and as a part of it, you will not feel bored. The essence of life will be there with you even if you are getting older externally.
# 7. Be Happy and Positive
Staying happy and positive is a great way to ensure that you are living a good life; in some cases, it could also help you live longer.
According to a study by Science.org, Happiness is associated with longer life. It says, “People in their golden years are 35% less likely to die within the next five years if their emotions are positive.”
Make sure you remove all the negativity from your life and focus on positive and happy things. It can certainly help you to live longer.
# 8. Stay in a Good Environment
The internal mindset and emotions are important for longer life, but at the same time, an external environment is also important to extend life expectancy. It means living in a pollution-free environment.
New Index finds air pollution reduces global life expectancy by nearly two years, making it the single greatest threat to human health. Loss of life expectancy is highest in Asia, exceeding six years in many parts of India and China; some residents of the United States still lose up to a year of life from pollution. According to a study by The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)
That’s why it is our responsibility not to stay in a good environment but also to contribute our efforts to make this planet green again by participating in environment-friendly activities.
# 9. Test Yourself
Most people don’t know the secret, but they can fight the illnesses much better if diagnosed early. That’s why doing your medical tests at certain intervals is important.
If you have any health insurance policies, you can also approach the company to assist you in doing such a full body checkup. However, it is extremely important to consult your doctor to decide the nature and time interval of the full body checkup.
According to the medical team at Harvard Medical School, “Certainly, there are many conditions for which the earlier the diagnosis, the better. That’s because we have effective treatments that work best during the early stages of the illness.”
# 10. Nurture Your Mind
The next rule to live longer is to nurture your mind and ensure that you are giving all the possible valuable things required by your mind.
A study by Scientific American shows that having a high IQ is associated with a longer life span. Even though the results are unclear, researchers believe there is a strong link between high IQ and long life.
As per the example of Scientific American, a person with an IQ of 115 was 21% more likely to be alive at age 76 than a person with an IQ of 100 (the average for the general population).
That’s why nurturing your mind is important if you are willing to live a long life. Doing memory activities, learning a new language, and reading frequently can help you to improve your IQ levels and, as a result, increase your lifespan.
# 11. Follow Detox Therapy
Detox therapy means staying abstain from toxic or unhealthy substances. People undergo detox to cleanse the blood, heart and whole body.
Even though detox might not be directly related to longer life, it helps to cleanse yourself. However, it is always highly recommended to take the expert’s advice before starting anybody’s detox because it can also harm some people if they have certain medical conditions.
# 12. Don’t Take Stress
The last but most important rule is to live a stress-free life. There will be many challenges in your life, but you have to deal with those challenges without taking any unnecessary stress. It is proven that taking Stress can cause hypertension, heart attack, or stroke.
As per the National Institute for Health and Welfare study, “Being under heavy Stress shortens their life expectancy by 2.8 years. These results are based on a study in which researchers from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare calculated the effects of multiple risk factors, including lifestyle-related ones, on the life expectancy of men and women.”
If things are in your control, then there is no need to worry because you can always manage those things in your life. If things are not in your control, you can’t do anything about them. Even in that case, you don’t have to worry about it.
FAQs
Apart from a healthy diet, regular exercise and good sleep, you should take care of the important parts of your body, such as the prostate gland.
Apart from a healthy diet, regular exercise and good sleep you should take care of the important nutrition, especially take your vitamins regularly. Vitamin D is essential, and many women are deficient.
Featured photo by Matt Bennett on Unsplash
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