Big Study Shows We Already Know What To Do For A Longer Life

Billy Joel sang that “only the good die young” but let’s be honest, good or bad, most of us want to live as long as we can! How long might that be? A new study has found a new way of determining if you'll die young or not.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at health data from over 38 thousand men and women who were followed for up to 16 years. Over that time period, over 3,800 participants died, with 1,133 dying from cardiovascular disease.

When researchers divided people into groups based on their estimated fitness (calculated with information like age, height, weight, waist circumference, and resting pulse), they found those who were least fit had a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease over the course of the study, compared to those who were most fit.

When the scientists added in traditional factors to estimate risk of early death, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, it turned out that adding those variables did not improve the accuracy of their predictions in a statistically meaningful way.    So I guess the take away -again- is to get fit by

diet and exercise.