How to have a long life

Imagine that a fortune teller who has a 100% accuracy told you that you would die today in a car crash on your way back if you went to that favorite coffee shop you always go to. What are you gonna do?

Might as well enjoy your last coffee, right?

Even though we don't yet have a way to extend human lifespan (though that will probably change soon as well), there are ways to make sure you can live as long as possible, so that you can receive those life-extension treatments when they eventually come out.

And the best way to live longer is to not do stuff that you know will kill you, like drinking that last cup of coffee.

This might sound obvious, but when you think more about it, we do a lot of things that slowly kill ourselves pretty much daily. Just came back from a smoke break? Or perhaps too lazy to make a healthy lunch, and bought McDonalds instead? And you just can't wait to lay on the couch once you get back from work?

So just what exactly kills us the most? Well, it turns out that according to this article, nearly 75% of deaths are attributed to only 10 causes, and the top 2 make up almost 50% of deaths!

the top 10:

1. Heart disease (23.53%)
2. Cancer (malignant neoplasms) (22.52%)
3. Chronic lower respiratory disease (5.74%)
4. Accidents (unintentional injuries) (5.02%)
5. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) (4.97%)
6. Alzheimer's disease (3.26%)
7. Diabetes (diabetes mellitus) (2.91%)
8. Influenza and pneumonia (2.19%)
9. Kidney disease (nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis) (1.81%)
10. Suicide (intentional self-harm) (1.58%)

Although it's the lowest on the list, let's look at the easiest one to solve, first. Suicide. Just don't... kill yourself. Sounds simple enough, right? Great, you just erased a 1.58% chance of yourself dying... until you feel like suicide again.

But clearly, the biggest things we want to avoid are heart attacks and cancer. Reducing our risk for heart disease and cancer will significantly reduce our chances of death, which means we'll live longer... Hopefully.

So how do we prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer?

Well, according to the article above:

Lowering blood pressure and cholesterol can significantly lower heart disease risk. Several lifestyle and dietary modifications can dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease, including:

• Follow instructions to ensure safe use of medications and any over the counter drugs
• Eating a diet that is low in salt, refined sugars, total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fresh fruits and vegetables
• Exercise regularly (at least 150 minutes a week). For example, take a brisk 10 minute walk three times a day, five days a week
• Avoid excessive intake of alcohol
• Quit smoking
• Take steps to reduce stress levels, or get help with stress management.
  
  

And for cancer...

"A substantial proportion of cancers are preventable, and all cancers caused by cigarette smoking and heavy use of alcohol could be prevented. Smoking contributes to an estimated 80% and 90% of deaths in men and women respectively.

The World Cancer Research Fund has estimated that up to one-third of cancer cases that occur in economically developed countries like the US are related to being overweight, obese, inactive (sedentary) or having poor nutrition. These are all potentially preventable."

So we see that heart diease and cancer prevention is relatively easy and straight forward. In particular, the things that help to reduce the risk for both cancer and heart disease are to quit smoking, be more active and eat less fat. Do those, and you'll save yourself by killing two birds with one stone.

So the next time you want to go for a smoke, eat mcdonalds and laze around, realize, that you really are killing yourself. Do you really want to be like the poor coffee dude?