Sure, your genetics and family history factor into how long you will live (if your parents lived long, healthy lives, that increases your odds). But your lifestyle choices may be more important than your genes. In fact, your genes probably make up less than 30 percent of what determines how long you will live. The rest of your odds for longer life stems from your environment and your own lifestyle choices. And the good news is, you have lots more control over those.
5 Behaviors That Can Get You to Age 90
Reaching age 90 in good health is a great longevity goal. Gender plays into this. Men have a harder time reaching age 90 than women. By studying men and their behaviors, researchers can try to figure out what really matters for healthy and successful aging. In 1981, researchers started to do just that by enrolling 2,300 healthy men with an average age of over 70 into a study on healthy aging. The men were given yearly surveys about their lifestyle and health.
By the end of the study some 16 years later, 970 men (41 percent) had made it to their 90s. Those 41 percent had different habits and behaviors that helped them live longer. As it turned out, five specific lifestyle choices make a big difference in living to 90: not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, good blood pressure control, regular exercise, and avoiding diabetes.
How to Live Longer
Specifically, the study found that:
Non-smokers were twice as likely to see age 90 as smokers. Diabetes increases your chance of death before age 90 by 86 percent. Obese people had a 44 percent increase in the chance of death before age 90. High blood pressure increased death risk before 90 by 28 percent. Men who exercise reduced their death risk before 90 by 20 percent to 30 percent (depending on how much and how often they exercised).
These percentages were calculated after the researchers accounted for the health of the participants at the start of the study, education level and other factors known to impact life expectancy. A further review of studies found that these factors not only shorten life but when you have several of them together, you greatly decrease your chance of survival.
How Can This Work for You?
Now that you understand the factors that contribute to living to age 90 and beyond, get started on living longer by working on one of them each month. For example, you can quit smoking this month, lose weight next month, and get your blood pressure under control the following month.
For some of these factors, like high blood pressure and diabetes, you may need the help of your healthcare provider to get your condition under control. For the other factors, you may need information and the support of your friends and family.
Here’s a list of resources to get you started:
Painless Weight Loss: Steps to take to eat better and lose weight. Stop Smoking Toolkit: Reduce a major health risk. Understanding High Blood Pressure: Know the facts about this silent killer.
A Word From Verywell
More people than ever before are reaching age 90, and if you take steps to preserve your health, you can be one of them. If you have any of the major risk factors, you can reduce those risks starting today.
