Four healthy actions, including not smoking, make a massive difference to survival chances of people over the age of 45, researchers said last night.
The major US study found that achieving four lifestyle changes cut the risk of dying by 80% over an eight year period.
The lifestyle changes also include eating a healthy diet, exercising and maintaining "normal" weight.
The US researchers studied more than 6,000 people aged between 44 and 84 for the research, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
As well as monitoring death rates, researchers used CT scanning to check for signs of calcium deposits in the arteries of the heart.
The researchers define a healthy diet as rich in fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grains.
But researcher Professor Roger Blumenthal, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, said: "Of all the lifestyle factors, we found that smoking avoidance played the largest role in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease and mortality.
"In fact, smokers who adopted two or more of the healthy behaviours still had lower survival rates after 7.6 years than did non-smokers who were sedentary and obese."
And fellow researcher Dr Haitham Ahmed said: "While there are risk factors that people can’t control, such as their family history and age, these lifestyle measures are things that people can change and consequently make a big difference in their health. That’s why we think this is so important."
American Journal of Epidemiology 3 June 2013
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