In this article we’ll take a look at the top 6 most important things to do if you want to increase your life expectancy.
Make sure you give me your full attention and read to the end of the article because they are all really important!
Number one: Be grateful!
Your physical vitality improves. Gratitude improves our physical health firstly because it helps lower our stress levels. It is no secret that stress has been proven to be a major cause of inflammation in our bodies as well as cause of heart attacks and other serious conditions.
Gratitude makes us have a positive outlook and an optimistic approach to life and optimism, in turn, has been linked to increased immunity boosting cells . A study conducted by California based Paul Mills, professor of family medicine at University of California, shows us that a “grateful heart is indeed a healthy heart”. In other words, being grateful is good for our mental, spiritual AND physical health.
Number two: Go for a walk!
The fact that cardiovascular exercise is healthy and something we should be doing is nothing new. What new research is showing us, however, is that moderation is the key here.
Running marathon races, at a high pace, were for a long time considered to be the ultimate test of how healthy an individual were, but we now know that running such long distances with the heart rate close to it’s max beat per minute is NOT healthy at all and can even be dangerous.
Very intense exercise, like high intensity interval training, is good but those sessions have to be very short. On the other hand: Long exercise sessions are also good but they should not be intense. Or like Mark Sisson says:
“make your hard sessions harder and shorter and your soft sessions longer and even slower.”
So when it comes down to health : taking a walk every day just might be the most optimal way of training cardio.
Number three: Control your insulin levels!
Numerous studies have shown that lowering your caloric intake slows down aging and extends lifespan. The effects have been observed in a variety of species from worms and yeast to rats and fish, and there’s evidence that it has a similar effect on the human lifespan. If we take a deeper look, however, it seems that the underlying factor that makes calorie restriction beneficial in the first place, is the lowering of insulin levels.
Some ways to control your insulin levels are: intermittent fasting, low carb high fat diets, or eating foods with a low glycemic index.
Number four: Control your bodies inflammation levels.
This is perhaps the most important point on the whole list as excessive inflammation is thought to be behind almost all of our modern ailments. From Cancer to cardiovascular diseases, alzheimer’s to autoimmune diseases and almost everything in between.
Some good ways to lower inflammation are: cold showers, a diet rich in vegetables and avoiding sugar, grains and alcohol.
Number five: Lift weights
Weightlifting enhances the brain, prevents and treats sarcopenia, and dramatically lowers
the death rate of cancer survivors. Muscular strength is associated with far lower rates of cancer and weight training has a much better effect on long-term control of waist size than does aerobic activity.
This does not mean you should skip the cardio. You need both! So don’t skip the walks!
Anyway, as if all that weren’t enough, weightlifting has a powerful anti-aging effect. Resistance exercise reverses aging in skeletal muscle; it literally made the gene expression profile in the muscles of older people into one more like those seen in young people.
One way in which weightlifting increases the size and strength of muscle is by lowering the level of myostatin. A new study shows that, in mice, less myostatin also means about 15% longer life.
In that study the longest lived mice had 30% less myostatin than controls. In humans, a 10-week program of strength training decreased myostatin levels an average of 20%.
Number six: Eat a lot of green vegetables
No surprise here but the evidence just keeps growing on this one. People who fill their plates with lots of vegetables have much lower risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular diseases compared to their friends who like to skip eating vegetables. So don’t forget to load up on them greens!