5 Habits That May Increase Your Life Span by a Decade

Practicing five habits consistently may add 10 years or more to your life, according to a landmark 2018 study by Harvard University. The best part? All of these daily habits have already been built into your Apeiron Life program. You might already know that compared to other wealthy countries, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is surprisingly low. We rank 38th in the world at 78.9 years. Of course, many people live much longer than that. In the study, Harvard tracked 123,000 people over three decades to figure out why.  The five habits of longevity:

1. Eat lots of whole, fiber-rich foods. The people who lived longest ate lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids. Their diet was also lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat, and sodium.

2. Exercise 30 minutes per day at moderate to vigorous intensity. Your Apeiron Life program includes a personalized activity target based on your goals. If you wear a fitness tracker, we’ll monitor your workout intensity according to your heart rate zones.

3. Maintain a healthy body weight, defined as a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9. At Apeiron Life, we look deeper than BMI to analyze more accurate metrics like visceral adipose tissue and body fat percentage.

4. Avoid smoking. This is pretty self-explanatory.

5. Consume alcohol in moderation, defined as 1 drink/day for women and 2/day for men. However, the guidelines may soon change to 1 drink/day for everyone, as more and more research indicates that even 2 drinks daily carries health risks.

The more healthy habits people had, the longer they lived. Even practicing just one of the above (it doesn’t matter which one), extended life span by two years in both men and women.