Lifestyle factors and "Years of Able Life"

[RAE]

Interesting study, though the results are about what you would expect. They studied a group of men and women ages 65 and older (mean age= 73) for 25 years (1989 through 2015), to see whether lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol use, diet, exercise, etc) affected both total years of life (YOL) and "years of able life (YAL)). They define YAL as the number years where you can live without some kind of daily assistance. As expected, the people with what they considered to be the healthiest lifestyles were able to compress the "disabled period" of life to a shorter period of time, compared to those with less healthy lifestyles.

With regard to exercise, here is a quote from the paper:

"Exercise intensity was no longer significantly associated with YAL, YoL or YAL/YoL% but those who walked more blocks per week had significantly greater YAL/YoL%. Every 25 blocks walked per week was associated with 0.5% higher YAL/YoL%."



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5073015/

 

[Walt34]

No surprise, pretty much the same conclusion reached in the book Younger Next Year.

 

[Red Badger]

Former drinkers had fewer YoL when compared to non-drinkers, but there was no significant difference in the YAL or YAL/YoL%. Current drinkers, on the other hand, did not seem to be significantly different from non-drinkers in terms of YAL, YoL and YAL/YoL%.

Double good news. I walk about 20-25 miles each week. I like my wine in the evening.

This news deserves a toast!

 

[FlaGator]

Former drinkers had fewer YoL when compared to non-drinkers, but there was no significant difference in the YAL or YAL/YoL%. Current drinkers, on the other hand, did not seem to be significantly different from non-drinkers in terms of YAL, YoL and YAL/YoL%.

Double good news. I walk about 20-25 miles each week. I like my wine in the evening.

This news deserves a toast!

Seems the best thing is to not stop drinking once you start. My start times are usually after 5.....

 

[Walt34]

Seems the best thing is to not stop drinking once you start. My start times are usually after 5.....

....somewhere.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

I'm with "the sun is over the yardarm" group.