People can make a massive difference to their health prospects by taking responsibility for their own behaviour, the academics behind a 35-year study have claimed.
The study – the longest of its kind to examine the influence of environmental factors in chronic disease – identifies five behaviours that provide the best chance of leading a long and disease-free life: taking regular exercise, not smoking, a healthy bodyweight, a healthy diet and a low alcohol intake.
Since 1979, researchers from Cardiff University School of Medicine tracked – and continue to track –the lifestyle habits of 2,500 men aged 45-59, living in the Caerphilly area of South Wales.
They found that the men who followed 4 or 5 specified healthy steps – less than 1% of the cohort – had a 70% reduced chance of developing diabetes; 60% reduced incidents of heart attacks and strokes; 40% fewer cancers; and a reduction of 60% in cases of dementia.
They presented their findings at the ‘Healthy Ageing’ summit in Cardiff yesterday (30 October, 2014) and 30 men from the original Caerphilly cohort, now in their late-70s to mid-90s, also attended.
Professor Peter Elwood, who has led the Caerphilly study since its inception, says the study is a “‘wake-up” challenge to the people of the UK.
He said the 30 men who followed all 5 of the healthy lifestyle recommendations developed disease at a much later time in life than those who were neglectful of their lifestyles.
The development of heart disease was delayed by up to 6 years, while it was about 12 years’ delay for dementia.
“The appalling fact is that recent surveys across the whole of Wales yield almost identical proportions of men and women following the healthy, and the unhealthy lifestyles that had been found in Caerphilly 35 years ago,” said Prof Elwood.
“As a country, we must wake up to the preventive power of living a healthy life.”
Further analyses of the data are planned, drawing from unpublished survey data and blood samples taken from the cohort at various times throughout the study, to investigate the impact of lifestyle on cognitive decline, on prostate cancer and on bowel cancer.
Professor John Gallacher, of Cardiff University and director of the UK Dementia Platform, said: “The Caerphilly Study has made a tremendous contribution to UK Science and has paved the way for UK Biobank and the Dementias Platform. These are exciting times as we gear-up to do research that will bring significant public benefit, helping older people everywhere to have longer and more satisfying lives.”
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