(NaturalHealth365) Despite what some “gurus” would have you to believe – living a healthy lifestyle isn’t really that complicated.  Even if you’re on a limited budget, you don’t need anything that ‘fancy’ to increase your ability to live a longer, happier life.

The importance of this cannot be overstated: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), fully 60% of all health and wellness outcomes, including a person’s lifespan (or how long they live), relates to lifestyle, aka factors within a person’s own control.  Makes you wonder – what kind of lifestyle is related to better health?

A 2018 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Circulation outlines it quite nicely for us.

Want to extend your life by over a decade? Double down on these 5 healthy lifestyle factors…

The study, published for the American Heart Association, evaluated health and longevity data from nearly 130,000 people over a span of 34 years. They found a shocking yet completely understandable correlations – people who adhered to the following five lifestyle practices had a 74% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to people who didn’t:

1. Maintain a healthy ‘anti-inflammatory diet’ – including a nice (daily) amount of organic fruits and vegetables
2. Keep a normal body weight, indicated by a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m²
3. Participate in at least 30 minutes per day of moderate/vigorous physical activity
4. Limit your alcohol consumption – which can suppress immune system functions
5. Kick the cigarette habit

The research also found that even if a person adhered to some but not all of these lifestyle factors, they still had a lowered risk of death. Conversely, people  who failed to practice any of these lifestyle factors were 65% more likely to die of cancer and 82% more likely to die of heart disease.

Hopefully, this strikes you as good news, because it means that your chances of enjoying a longer, healthier life is MOSTLY within your control.

Diet and lifestyle are KEY – and if done poorly, are killers

In “the most comprehensive worldwide observational epidemiological study to date,” the Global Burden of Disease published by the Lancet found that 11 million deaths which occurred in 2017 – or about 20% of all adult deaths for that year – were directly attributable to dietary factors. These included:

• Consuming too much sodium
• Low intake of whole grains
• Low intake of fruits

We’ll add to this the obvious problem of consuming too much sugar, refined carbohydrates, and highly processed foods, or as author Michael Pollan says, “food-like substances.”  And, of course, for those people that are sensitive to gluten, grains – in general – could be a problem … even if they are “organic.”

Given how clear the data is on longevity (the latter of which is a hot topic these days), hopefully more doctors and organizations will start to shift their approach to a true version of healthcare, which currently slants toward (‘sick care’) making drugs and providing other interventions that simply treat or manage disease rather than prevent it.

Of course, drugs are where the money are, so we won’t hold our breath. In the meantime, join us by setting an example to your family and friends by adopting some (if not all) of the above lifestyle factors into your daily life.

Sources for this article include:

LifeExtension.com
WHO.int
NYTimes.com
NIH.gov
TheLancet.com