Healthy lifestyle lets you live to 90 and even more

American scientists believe that it’s possible to live to 90 and stay healthy and happy. But one should take efforts and take care of themselves.

Photo: Healthy lifestyle lets you live to 90 and even more

A survey of more than 2,000 people in America showed that being the right weight, exercising and not smoking during retirement increased the chances of living for another 25 years.

Thus healthy lifestyle and risk management should be continued in elderly years to reduce mortality and disability.

In a second study scientists set out to establish if people who lived into extreme old age developed chronic diseases later in life or if they lived with them for longer.

523 women and 216 men aged 97 or older were studied for this.

The study showed that two thirds of men and women who lived to 97 or more developed diseases like lung disease, dementia, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, brittle bone disease later in life. Only one third contracted these diseases before the age of 85 and lived with the effects.

The further study revealed interesting and important facts.

A healthy 70-year-old is almost guaranteed 50 per cent chance of living until 90 if he had never smoked, had normal blood pressure and weight and exercised up to four times a week. The absence of exercise reduces these chances to 44 per cent.

High blood pressure cuts the chances to 3 per cent and obesity to a 25 per cent chance of reaching 90. Smoking reduces the chances of living to 90 to 20 per cent.

A combination of three or more of these factors reduced the chances of a long life to 14 per cent and having all five gave men just a five per cent chance of living to the age of 90.

The scientists also stress that 25 per cent of the variation in lifespan is determined by genes, therefore 75 per cent can be determined by lifestyle.

Still being healthy could add as much as 10 years to a man's lifespan