Can't live healthy? Men lose 10 years or more!

William Atkins
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 18:37

Science - Health

When all risk factors were included, it was found that middle aged men with the highest number of risk factors (5% of the participants) and those with the least number of risk factors (5% of the participants), had a fifteen-year difference in expected lifetimes.

That is, it was found that the highest-risk men lived, on average, fifteen (15) years less then the lowest-risk men.

Dr. Robert Clarke, (Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, at Oxford University), led the study.

He stated, "We've shown that men at age 50 who smoke, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can expect to survive to 74 years of age, while those who have none of these risk factors can expect to live until 83.” [BBC News: "Unhealthy men ‘may lose 10 years’” ]

Dr. Clarke added, "It is precisely this kind of very prolonged follow-up study that is necessary to get these results - that modest differences in heart risk factors can accurately predict significant differences in life expectancy." [BBC News]

He also stated, "The results give people another way of looking at heart disease risk factors that can be understood more readily." [BBC News]

Dr. Clarke concluded, "If you stop smoking or take measures to deal with high blood pressure or body weight, it will translate into increased life expectancy." [BBC News]

In addition, the article in the British Medical Journal concludes, “Despite substantial changes in these risk factors over time, baseline differences in risk factors [in middle-aged men] were associated with 10 to 15 year shorter life expectancy from age 50.”