Hi and happy Tuesday!
Here are this week's selected longevity stories:
Which lifestyle changes can make you live longer? More than 700,000 US veterans between the ages of 40 to 99 were followed for 8 years to try to find an answer to this. This article (with a link to the research study) reported that the number one remedy was physical activity, which lowered the risk of death by 46%. See graphic above.
A ring to track your health? We now have watches and rings to track health parameters such as heart rate during sleep, sleep latency, respiratory rate, night movement, menstrual cycle, skin temperature, heart rate, movement, and a few other things. And I suspect more interesting things will come. How about if we one day have microchips in our bodies that in real time warn us of incoming virus or bacteria, buildup of cancer cells, blockage of blood vessels, deficiencies of vitamins, minerals, hormones, etc? I want that 😃
In 1998, there were 10,000 people in Japan that were 100 years old or older. Today there are more than 92,000! People are no longer having many babies in Japan, and the population shrinks by almost 1 million per year. But they have an astonishing number of centenarians. They are doing something right. Also, check out this graph for centenarians worldwide. Someone has got to reach 130 soon. 😂
It is estimated that the UK's diet is now 57% ultra-processed! In this article, Tim Spector talks about the health dangers of consuming highly processed food. Ultra-processed foods are linked to diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and about 30 other health problems. The true number is probably much higher. The scary part is how much we still consume of this kind of food.
Speaking of the health problems caused by consuming ultra-processed food, this article (with a link to the research study) goes into detail about the more than 30 identified health issues caused by this kind of food. Here is a chart to save you time.
What’s next?
In 7 days, I will explain the #2 most important factor for living long and well. A few weeks ago, I explained that exercise is number 1. Stay tuned to get the second one.
In 14 days, you will get another roundup like this one.
Thank you very much for your time!
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Have a good day,
Johan
It's bizarre to me that being physically active has an even larger positive impact on your health than not smoking -- that graphic is a true testament to the power of moving everyday. Thanks for sharing these ideas, Johan!