Live long: adding another lifetimeHome Free after 30 The United States may have a smaller proportion of J men joining the club of octogenarians than Japan, where w life expectancy is much longer than it is for most other folks on the globe. But studies show that if we can make it to the big eight-oh, we end up outliving 80-year-olds in Japan and many European countries. If you want to increase your chances of making it into your seventies and beyond, the doctors from the esteemed Framingham Heart Study-a Massachusetts community-based health study of more than 10,000 men and women that has been in progress for more than 30 years-have a very simple prescription for men to follow-. Smoke less, keep your blood pressure in check, and exercise to strengthen your lungs and lower your heart rate. Among 747 healthy 50-year-old men whom researchers began studying more than two decades ago, those who had lower blood pressure, smoked fewer cigarettes, and had lower heart rates and better lung function-both associated with cardiovascular fitness-were significantly more likely to see their 75th birthday than those who did not. The Outer Limits So what's the longest you can expect to live once you've successfully navigated past childhood diseases, car crashes, and chronic diseases? Experts agree that you probably won't live as long as the oldest people on record- about 120. The only authenticated case of a man who's ever reached this remarkable milestone was Shigechiyo Izumi, a Japanese man who made it to The Guinness Book of World Records for living 120 years and 237 days. More remarkably, Izumi continued to work until he was 105. "Thousands of individuals will be able to make it past 100," says Dr. Olshansky. "But our inherited program for growth and development leads inadvertently to a biological limit on life." Evidently, that's the price we pay for being a sexually reproducing species. *3/36/5* GENERAL HEALTH ĞLevitra Onlineğ |