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Tips for a Longer, Healthier Life

The average person is born with strong enough longevity genes to live to 85 and maybe longer. People who take appropriate preventive steps may add as many as ten quality years to that. The vast majority of baby boomers do a terrible job preparing for old age. Many consume high fat diets, smoke, drink excessively, and don't exercise.

We have great potential to extend our lives, researchers say, if we just take care of ourselves.

Tune Up Your Attitude

Reduce stress —Try meditation, exercise, or yoga. You can learn to modify your responses to negative situations even if you can't change your basic personality

Stay connected with other people —Social support is vital and maintaining close relationships is associated with better physical and mental health.

Cultivate optimism —A Mayo Clinic study shows that optimists live longer and have better health, because pessimism may lower immune system responsiveness and enhance tumor growth. Good news: an excessively pessimistic outlook on life is changeable. Brief programs can change your thinking about life events and lower the risk for physical illness and even death.

Tips: Watch Your Diet

Emphasize fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fiber, and polyunsaturated fats.

Avoid cholesterol, saturated fat, and hydrogenated fat (red meat, egg yolks, fast food burgers, and fries, etc), which are linked to heart disease, breast cancer , and prostate cancer.

Avoid refined sugar and excessive calorie intake.

Avoid processed foods and those supplemented with high fructose corn syrup.

One glass of red wine a day still appears to lower the risk of heart disease.

Drink green tea, which has antioxidants that may fight cancers.

Consider taking antioxidant supplements like vitamin C , vitamin E , and selenium . But if you choose this path, be sure to follow the medical literature on vitamin risks.

Consider supplementing your diet with omega 3 fatty acids .

Tips: Exercise : Even a Little Helps

Many of the centenarians in one study, had lived in second and third floor apartments of three-family houses. This afforded them a perfect opportunity for daily weight-bearing exercise—walking stairs—which builds muscle mass.

Just 15-30 minutes a day of walking or bicycling is enough to gain longevity benefits and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Resistance exercise—for example, walking up stairs or hills—guards against loss of muscle mass and benefits the heart. Exercise also provides a sense of well-being and helps maintain an agile and alert brain.

Tips: Use Your Head

According to researchers, retaining cognitive capacity "most often determines whether people can attain extreme old age while remaining active." Here is a sampling of mental workouts that can keep the brain razor-sharp as you age:

Crossword and jigsaw puzzles

Playing bridge

Learning foreign languages

Playing musical instruments

Learning dance steps

Writing

Sports, including yoga and tai chi

Taking classes

Traveling

Memory training

Experiencing the new and unfamiliar

Floss Your Teeth!

You heard right. Flossing may help prevent heart disease. There is preliminary evidence that inflamed gums release substances into the bloodstream that cause clogged arteries. Whether or not it will help you live longer, flossing keeps your gums healthy, prevents tooth loss, and—with all those shining teeth—gives you a nicer smile, too.

SBI!