Can These Daily Habits Help You Live Longer?
Ask practically any doctor about how to live longer, and they’ll point you toward the textbook healthy habits: Cut back on sugary and salty processed foods in favor of whole, fresh ones; quit smoking; cool it on the alcohol; and get in some regular exercise. However unsexy such recommendations may be, it’s these routine behaviors—not longevity fads like fancy biometric testing or IV drips of liquid supplements—that have the most evidence behind them for helping you eke out more years and ward off illness too.
Of course, the tricky part is putting big lifestyle changes into practice. It’s hard to know where to start…and tempting to just throw up your hands if you don’t have time to implement all of the things. But according to the experts, you don’t actually need to overhaul your life. “I’ve seen in my practice that little changes can make a real difference over time,” Jeffrey Boone, MD, a board-certified internist and founder and medical director of Boone Heart Institute, in Colorado, tells SELF. In fact, approaching all facets of your lifestyle with moderation may be the best tack. “To get too obsessed with one thing or another, whether it’s an extreme diet or excessive exercise routine, is not necessarily a marker of longevity,” Deborah M. Kado, a board-certified internist and co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center, tells SELF.
Read on to find the small, actually doable behaviors that can extend your lifespan, according to doctors who specialize in longevity—and the science that proves they work.
Excerpted from Self
