Ten years of life: Is it a matter of choice?

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

The PDF is available for the below.

Talk about Okinawans, “highest life expectancy of any formally described

population” was pretty impressive. Ten years longer they could live and

they did not even need the CR lifestyle.

The ON part of CR does seem to make a lot of difference, if adopted at an

early age.

For body mass index, the risk was about the same as for other factors like

exercise, smoking and diet.

Cheers, Al.

Arch Intern Med 2001 Jul 9;161(13):1645-52

Ten years of life: Is it a matter of choice?

Fraser GE, Shavlik DJ.

“…. METHODS: A total of 34 192 California Seventh-Day Adventists (75% of

those eligible) were enrolled in a cohort and followed up from 1976 to 1988.

A mailed questionnaire provided dietary and other exposure information at

study baseline. Mortality for all subjects was ascertained by matching to

state death tapes and the National Death Index.

RESULTS: California Adventists have higher life expectancies at the age of

30 years than other white Californians by 7.28 years (95% confidence

interval, 6.59-7.97 years) in men and by 4.42 years (95% confidence

interval, 3.96-4.88 years) in women, giving them perhaps the highest life

expectancy of any formally described population. Commonly observed

combinations of diet, exercise, body mass index, past smoking habits, and

hormone replacement therapy (in women) can account for differences of up to

10 years of life expectancy among Adventists. A comparison of life

expectancy when these factors take high-risk compared with low-risk values

shows independent effects that vary between 1.06 and 2.74 years for

different variables. The effect of each variable is assessed with all others

at either medium- or high-risk levels.

CONCLUSIONS: Choices regarding diet, exercise, cigarette smoking, body

weight, and hormone replacement therapy, in combination, appear to change

life expectancy by many years. The longevity experience of Adventists

probably demonstrates the beneficial effects of more optimal behaviors.”

PMID: 11434797 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Alan Pater, Ph.D.; Faculty of Medicine; Memorial University; St. 's, NF

A1B 3V6 Canada; Tel. No.: (709) 777-6488; Fax No.: (709) 777-7010; email:

apater@...