1. Walk 30 minutes a day (add 2 yrs)
2. Move around in some fashion for 100 minutes a day (6 yrs)
3. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier (3 yrs). At least 7 hours per night!
4. Strength train (1 yr). Just 20 minutes, twice a week.
5. Floss daily (4 yrs). Tooth and heart health are linked!
6. Have more sex with your partner (8 yrs)
7. Don't text and drive (2 yrs) Worse than driving drunk!
8. Stop smoking (9 yrs)
9. Manage stress (4 yrs):
Of course you can’t control when an overloaded work schedule and family obligations might hit, but how you handle stress ultimately has the biggest impact on your health. “A highly stressed 50-year-old’s ‘real age’ could be as high as 82,” says Dr. Roizen. When you’re constantly tense, your blood pressure, heart rate and levels of the stress hormone cortisol are all raised, which increases your risk for heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and more. Exercise can help a lot: Just 15 minutes of brisk walking increases your body’s production of feel-good chemicals, like endorphins. Other stress-busting tips:
Start your day with 15 minutes of belly breathing. This will help relax your mind and muscles and help you power through stress that crops up during the rest of your day, says Woodson Merrell, MD, chair of the department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center. “The morning is actually when our bodies feel the most stressed, because it’s when we’re transitioning from inactivity to activity and producing the highest levels of cortisol,” he notes. Here’s what to do: Sit tall at the edge of your bed or in a chair. Breathe in for a count of four, pause a moment, then breathe out for a count of six. Think of a peaceful image, like sitting by the sea, or repeat a simple word like calm.
Meet a friend face-to-face. “Being involved with friends or in a community is as powerful as exercise in terms of preventing heart disease and dementia,” says Henry Lodge, MD, coauthor of Younger Next Year for Women. Pencil in some friend time at least three times a week, or every day if possible.
Chew gum. A British study of more than 2,000 workers found that people who regularly chewed gum had significantly less work-related and overall stress and depression than those who didn’t get this oral fix. Chewing gum may stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps your body relax and increases levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that makes us feel calmer and happier.
10. Eat healthy (14 yrs):
“Food has a very big impact on the genes that accelerate or slow down the aging process,” says Dr. Roizen. So exactly what does eating healthy mean?
Choose “good” fats. Snacks like nuts are better than ones that contain saturated fats, like butter and full-fat cheese. One study showed that eating nuts daily (any kind) lowers total cholesterol levels by more than 5% and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by nearly 7.5%.
Eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily—and aim for variety. “When you eat many different fruits and vegetables, you get thousands of different disease-fighting nutrients,” says Dr. Katz. One study found that people who regularly eat a variety of veggies lowered their risk of lung cancer by 23%.
Eat fish twice a week. Research shows that the omega-3 fats found in fish like salmon are among the biggest health boosters, helping to fight heart disease, stroke, hypertension, depression, and even Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis, says Diane McKay, PhD, a researcher with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. On the flip side, research involving more than a half-million people found that those who ate the most red or processed meat had a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease and dying from cancer than those who ate the least.
Go for fiber-rich whole grains. Spooning up a high-fiber breakfast cereal instead of a more refined, sugary one cuts your risk of heart disease and diabetes by nearly 30%.
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