Health Habits To Help You Live Longer!

Quick and easy tricks that add years to your life

- Tanya Pearey

They say don’t sweat the small stuff. But it’s the little choices you make every day that can have the biggest impact on your health.

Recent research has shown that it’s healthy habits that can keep diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease – including heart attacks and strokes – and type 2 diabetes at bay.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, involved researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and found women with a healthy lifestyle could live up to 10 years longer free of disease than those with less healthy habits.

And having a healthy lifestyle doesn’t need to be as difficult as we fear. ‘One thing I’ve realised in early 20 years of seeing patients is that we have massively overcomplicated health,’ says television’s Dr Rangan Chatterjee. ‘We think everything we need to do for our health takes a long time, a lot of effort and usually involves things we don’t enjoy doing. It doesn’t.’

His key piece of advice: ‘If you want to make something stick, it’s got to be small.’

The importance of moving

Forget about trying to run a marathon and instead simply start to incorporate moving more throughout your day. Walk to the shops if you can, avoid sitting for long periods and even try brushing your teeth while standing on one leg.