Women who have healthy lifestyle habits can reduce their risk of premature death by up to half, new research suggests.
Researchers from Boston have found that women who never smoke, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly and eat well can reduce their risk of an early death from chronic disease, such as cancer and heart disease.
"Even modest differences in lifestyle can have a substantial impact on reducing mortality rates," the study's authors wrote.
The research was led by Dr. Rob van Dam and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The findings are published in the online edition of the British Medical Journal.
The researchers recruited nearly 80,000 women between the ages of 34 and 59 who were part of the U.S. Nurses Health Study, which began in 1980.
Every two years over a 24-year follow-up period, study subjects completed questionnaires about their diet, physical activity levels, alcohol intake, weight, smoking habits and history of disease.
During the follow-up period, more than 8,000 women died, including nearly 1,800 from heart disease and more than 4,500 from cancer.
About 55 per cent of those deaths could have been avoided if the women never smoked, exercised regularly, ate healthy foods and maintained an ideal weight, the researchers estimated.
Twenty-eight per cent of the deaths could have been avoided if the women had never smoked.
"These results indicate that adherence to lifestyle guidelines is associated with markedly lower mortality in middle aged women," the authors wrote in an abstract that accompanies their study. "Both efforts to eradicate cigarette smoking and those to stimulate regular physical activity and a healthy diet should be intensified."
Alcohol consumption did not alter the researchers' estimates. However, women who drank the equivalent of one drink per day were less likely to die from heart disease compared to subjects who did not drink any alcohol.
It is well documented that a poor diet, lack of physical activity, being overweight and smoking all contribute to an increased risk of disease, including cancer and diabetes.
A previous study of more than 2,000 elderly men in Europe found that 60 per cent of deaths from all causes over a 10-year period were linked to a poor diet, smoking, low physical activity levels and high alcohol consumption.
However, this is the first time that researchers have found that a combination of lifestyle factors could lower the risk of death from disease in middle-aged women.
