By IANS
London : People can increase their lifespan by exercising, drinking moderately and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, says a new study carried out in Britain.
The findings of the study by scientists at the University of Cambridge, which covered 20,000 people in Norfolk between 1993 and 2006, show that these changes can add as much as 14 years to people’s lives regardless of how overweight or poor they once were.
The participants, aged between 45 and 79, were socially mixed although most were white. As far as they were aware at the time, they did not have cancer or any heart problem, reported the online edition of BBC News.
The scientists awarded a point for each of the following: not currently smoking, consuming between one and 14 units of alcohol per week (the equivalent of between half a glass and seven glasses of wine), eating five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and not being inactive.
Not being inactive was defined as either having a sedentary occupation and taking half an hour of exercise a day, or simply having a non-sedentary job like nursing or plumbing.
Not only did the team find that those with four points were significantly less likely to have died over the period than those with none, they also found that a 60-year-old person with a score of zero had the same risk of dying as a 74-year-old with the full four points.