Healthy Living Study Results on Longevity

Taking medication is so common today, it seems like everyone does it. But though meds are important and can help us manage our conditions, when it comes to longevity healthy lifestyle choices — like eating right and exercising — may have much bigger benefits than anything that comes in a bottle. Let’s take a look at the role our lifestyle choices play in lifespan.

The Benefit of Medications for Better Living

Medications can absolutely help people live and feel better during their lifetime, and we would never want to encourage anyone to stop using medications that are helping them, but a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine shows those medications generally aren’t helping people live longer.

Longevity Study Results

The study instead indicated that steady exercise, a healthy diet, and abstaining from smoking are the three main factors that contribute to a longer lifespan. 

Those three factors, combined with medications for needed conditions, may contribute to fewer adverse medical events as a person ages. But it's worth noting that patients often obtain relief from the medicines their healthcare providers prescribe, and when they feel better, they may be more likely to focus on taking better care of themselves, as well. Even, in some cases, being able to get off of their meds and move toward a much more stable state. So we're not discounting meds at all, but it's important to know that it's lifestyle that will increase (or decrease) longevity in many cases.

Medications Aren’t Necessarily Prolonging Lives

Too many people avoid worrying about healthy diets and exercise regimens once they’re on medication for a health problem. They may assume the meds are enough, or they may think there’s no point in diet and exercise changes. Some take a resigned approach: if the medications don’t fix the problem, why would getting exercise or eating better solve it? And some just feel defeated. They're so far in the hole that they can't see the way out.

Negative thought patterns surrounding healthy lifestyle changes are common in those who take medications for health problems. And there's a shortage of doctors who want to encourage these behaviors once they've got things managed with meds. Why disturb what appears to be working? Yet according to a media press release about the study, living healthier bought people more time than prescriptions, no matter the number of medications the person was taking.

A Healthy Lifestyle Lowered Death Risk

The study followed more than 20,000 people for 10 years. Of those, 17% took 10 medications or more, 39% took between 5 and 9 medicines, and 44% took 4 or fewer prescriptions. Researchers also examined lifestyle habits in four categories: sedentary time, smoking, physical activity, and diet. 

After a decade, the study showed that people who had more healthy lifestyle factors had a lower death risk than those who had fewer healthy lifestyle factors. No matter how many medications they were taking, living healthily still gave them the biggest overall benefit.

Medications may be very important for quality of life, and they definitely help prolong it in some instances. But overall, for people who want to live longer, healthier lives, the goal should probably be to eat a healthy diet, get daily exercise, and avoid or quit smoking in addition to any needed meds. Hopefully soon our doctors will help us with that great combination and we'll all be better for it.

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