azimagery AZ Bike & Peace: 10 Healthy Habits That May Help You Live to 100

Thursday, December 17, 2009

10 Healthy Habits That May Help You Live to 100

10 Healthy Habits That May Help
You Live to 100

You don't need to eat yogurt and
live on a mountaintop, but you do need to floss.

By Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report

The biggest factor that determines how well you age is not your genes but how well you live. Not convinced? A new study of 20,000 British citizens published in the British Medical Journal shows that you can cut your risk of having a stroke in half by doing the following four things (denny stroke heart) : being active for 30 minutes a day, eating five daily servings of fruit and vegetables, and avoiding cigarettes and excess alcohol.

While those are some of the obvious steps you can take to age well, researchers have discovered that centenarians tend to share certain traits in how they eat, move about, and deal with stress—the sorts of things we can emulate to improve our own aging process.

Of course, getting to age 100 is enormously more likely if your parents did. Still, Thomas Perls, M.D., M.P.H., who studies the century-plus set at Boston University School of Medicine, believes that assuming you've side-stepped genes for truly fatal diseases like Huntington's, "there's nothing stopping you from living independently well into your 90s." Heck, if your parents and grandparents were heavy smokers, they might have died prematurely without ever reaching their true potential lifespan, so go ahead and shoot for those triple digits.

Follow these 10 habits, and check out Perls' lifetime risk calculator to see how long you can expect to live.

Psalm
103 (New International Version) Psalm 103 Of David.

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-

3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass,   he flourishes like a flower of the field;

16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,   and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who
fear him,
   and his righteousness with their children's children-

18 with those who keep his covenant    and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,   and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.

21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,    you his servants who do his will.

22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion.    Praise the LORD, O my soul.