Enough has been said about the benefits of exercise. 30 minutes of exercising everyday is known to have long-term health effects, including lowering your BP, better cardiovascular health, and even weight loss. However, do you know that for every hour you exercise, you can actually increase your lifespan by three hours? Yes, you heard that right!Exercise, and live longerDr. John Scharffenberg, a professor of nutrition at Loma Linda University in California, shared some tips for living a longer life in a YouTube video. At the remarkable age of 100, the centenarian shared that one of the biggest tools to live longer is exercise, and for every hour you exercise, you add three hours to your life. He also mentioned that while exercise is important at every age, you must definitely exercise between the ages of 40-70, as your body start to degenerate at 40.
Here are some more tips that he added:Tobacco: The doctor outlines the dangers of tobacco, known since the 1964 Surgeon General report. He said that when it comes to Alzheimer’s, it has an extremely small percentage of tobacco users. That is because tobacco users do not live long enough to get any chronic disease later on.Alcohol: Following closely on the heels of tobacco is alcohol. Dr. Scharffenberg said that especially for women, alcohol increases the chances of getting breast cancer. He also added that while earlier studies claim that two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women was probably safe, new studies refute that, and add no amount of alcohol is safe.Exercise: As mentioned earlier, Dr. Scharffenberg is a huge advocate of exercise, and recommends it everyday. He adds that even if someone is obese and exercises everyday, he will still outlive a person who is thin, but does not exercise. And, while a lot of people think that 40 is the age to slow down, on the contrary, one should start exercising the most from this age, upto the age of 70.Smoking: At one point of life, smoking will kill you, says Dr. John Scharffenberg. It could be at 40 or 60, depending on how long you have been smoking. And unlike alcohol, on which debate is sketchy, there is no debate on smoking – even 1 cigarette is not recommended.
Diet: Dr. Scharffenberg largely recommends a vegetarian diet, with an occasional lean meat here and there. According to him, “The optimum diet is the vegetarian diet. Everybody should know this. It’s not something unusual.” He notes that top scientists advised the U.S. government in 2015 that a vegetarian diet is among the optimal dietary patterns, as it can help reduce the risk of age-related diseases.This apart, Dr. Scharffenberg recommends low consumption of sugar, reducing fat intake, and other lifestyle changes that can make you live longer.
