4 Bad Habits Take 12 Years of Life

 Smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet can age you by 12 years new research suggests. 

There have been studies that observed 5,000 British adults for 20 years. These observations highlighted many habits to avoid for a healthier lifestyle. Overall, 314 people studied had all four unhealthy habits. Among them, 91 died during the study. This is 29 percent. Among the 387 healthiest people who did not have any of the four bad habits only 32 died. This is only 8 percent. 

The unhealthy behaviors were defined as: smoking tobacco; downing more than three alcoholic drinks per day for men and more than two daily for women; getting less than two hours of physical activity per week; and eating fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily. 

These behaviors combined increased the risk of death and caused people who habitually engaged in them seem 12 years older than the people in the healthiest group. This study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. 

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