4,500 Sunrises

What would you do with 13 years?

According to a large, longitudinal scientific study conducted at Harvard University, taking great care of yourself gets you 13 years.

Of life.

Thirteen years of life.

The researchers followed more than 123,000 subjects for 34 years. They took various measures of behavior from the subjects and noted which subjects died during that period and when they died.

What did they find?

“We estimate that adherence to a low-risk lifestyle could prolong life expectancy at age 50 years by 14.0 and 12.2 years in female and male US adults compared with individuals without any of the low-risk lifestyle factors. Our findings suggest that the gap in life expectancy between the United States and other developed countries could be narrowed by improving lifestyle factors.”

The salutary lifestyle studied was refraining from smoking tobacco, moderating consumption of alcoholic drinks, eating nutritious food, exercising, and maintaining an optimal weight.

And it’s good for thirteen years of life—13.1 to be precise. (1)

That’s more than 4,500 sunrises!

And sunsets.

And/or whatever else you want to do with more than 4,500 days.

And what if you also get plenty of sleep and rest, engage in fulfilling work and fulfilling relationships, and otherwise holistically take great care of yourself?

You’ll likely add even more years to your life, along with life to your years.

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
—The Shawshank Redemption

(1) Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population. Circulation, 2018, 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.