The negative effects related to smoking, alcohol consumption and lack of exercise can be felt from the age of 36, according to a new survey published in the Anals of Medicine (Elevate) journal. The study stresses that these bad habits should be fought as soon as possible to increase the chances of healthy aging.
To get to conclusionsresearchers from Finland used a long -term longitudinal study, in which hundreds of children born in Jyväskylä, a Finnish city, in 1959 were accompanied from childhood until the beginning of the 60s.
The team analyzed the mental and physical health of these participants through data collected from research and medical examinations in different parts of life: at 27 years (326 participants) and again at 36, 42, 50 and 61 years (206 participants).
To evaluate mental health, they used research on symptoms of depression and psychological well-being. Physical health was evaluated by the creation of a metabolic risk score based on blood pressure, waist circumference and blood sugar levels, cholesterol and other blood fats. It was also evaluated the self-health, that is, how participants classified their health status in the last year.
Added to this, three risk behaviors were analyzed: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption (defined as consumption of at least 7,000 g/875 units of alcohol per year for women and 10,000 g/1,250 units per year for men) and physical inactivity (practicing exercises less than once a week).
The researchers concluded that if a person had all these three habits, at one point in life both physical and mental health would be worse than if they had none of these behaviors. Furthermore, The negative effects were apparent in the study participants in the 35 -year -old .
“Non -transmitted chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, cause almost three quarters of deaths worldwide,” says Tia Kekäläinen, the main study author and health scientist with specific interest in aging in a statement. “But by adopting a healthy lifestyle, the individual can reduce the risk of developing these diseases and decrease the chances of early death.”
“Our findings highlight the importance of combating health -risk behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking and physical inactivity as soon as possible to prevent the damage they cause over the years, culminating in mental and physical health problems in life,” he adds.
The authors reinforce that it is never too late to adopt healthier habits. Practicing physical activities, feeding healthily and avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption in middle age can bring benefits to old age, according to the researchers.
Despite the findings, the study is observational, that is, it cannot prove that risk behaviors were fostering health problems, not the other way around.
Study limitations include classifying each of the three habits as equally harmful to health rather than pondering them. The authors also recognize that they have analyzed only three types of behavior and say that other factors, such as diet, should be included in future studies.
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This content was originally published in smoking, drinking and physical inactivity: health damages appear before 40, says study on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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