The Real Predictor Of Longevity Isn't What You'd Expect by mindbodygreen

 I'm not obsessing over longevity, I know I'll get there. Life is fun and I'm enjoying it.

The Real Predictor Of Longevity Isn't What You'd Expect

We tend to think of health as a snapshot: how we're doing right now. Your latest blood pressure reading, your current weight, whether you made it to the gym this week. But what if your health over time matters more than any single moment?

A new analysis from the Framingham Heart Study suggests that decades of habits may leave a lasting mark on how long you live. Researchers tracked participants for nearly three decades1, and the results add to a growing body of research on what it really takes to stay healthy as you age.

About the study

We know that healthy habits lower the risk of heart disease and early death. But most research looks at health at a single point in time, which doesn't capture how habits change (or stay the same) over the years.

Researchers wanted to know whether the accumulation of healthy behaviors across decades, not just a single checkup, relates to long-term disease risk and death.

They followed 3,231 people across multiple exam cycles over roughly 25 years, then tracked health outcomes for a median of 28 years. The average age was 55, and 53% were women.

To measure health, researchers used the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 framework, which includes eight key markers: diet, physical activity, smoking status, BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. Instead of looking at just one point in time, the team added up each person's scores over the full study period to create a cumulative health score, capturing the total benefit (or burden) of health behaviors sustained over decades.

Decades of healthy habits linked to lower disease & death risk

People with the highest cumulative scores had dramatically lower risk across all outcomes compared to those with the lowest scores.

Specifically, those in the top quarter had:

• 73% lower risk of cardiovascular disease
• 84% lower risk of coronary heart disease
• 77% lower risk of heart failure
• 55% lower risk of stroke
• 63% lower risk of death from any cause

People with above-average cumulative scores lived an average of 7.4 years longer without cardiovascular disease and 4.6 years longer overall compared to those below average.

These results held even after accounting for each person's current health score at the final exam. In other words, your health history matters beyond where you stand today.

Improving over time still counts

The researchers also looked at whether people's health scores were going up or down over time.

People whose scores were improving had lower risk of heart disease and death, even after accounting for their overall cumulative score. This means changing your direction can still make a real difference.

However, the data also showed that 55% of people had declining scores over time. Most people's cardiovascular health gets worse with age, but it doesn't have to. It's not about perfection—it's about direction.

How to build better health over time

This research reframes health as something you build over years, not something you achieve in a single moment. Here's how to put that into practice:

Think in years, not days: Small daily movement habits like a morning walk or an extra serving of vegetables add up over time. The goal isn't a perfect week; it's a sustainable path forward.

Choose consistency over intensity: Avoid all-or-nothing cycles. Moderate habits you can keep up for decades beat short bursts of "perfect" behavior followed by burnout.

Focus on what matters most: The Life's Essential 8 framework highlights the big levers: movement, consistent sleep, diet, and metabolic markers like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Track your direction: If your health is improving over time, that counts, even if you're not where you want to be yet.

Start now: Health debt builds up. The earlier you begin healthy habits, the greater the benefit over time; it becomes harder to reverse course later.

The takeaway

Your cardiovascular health is cumulative: decades of habits shape your risk of heart disease, stroke, and early death. This Framingham analysis shows that consistency over time matters more than any single snapshot. Improving your path still counts, so it's never too late to start.

How to Train for the Last Decade of Your Life, According to Peter Attia

 At 69, I'm going for 100, so starting now I'll have three chances to get this training right.

The idea is to make a list of the 10 most important — and most difficult — physical activities or movements you want to be able to do in the last decade of life.

For many of his patients, he said, sex, dancing, and living independently are often high on the list. Well, sex would be great but haven't found a partner yet.  Dancing, not for me, it's the only thing I'm embarrassed doing. Living independently will occur, just bought a 4 level condo, 7 steps to each level, I'll be practicing steps till the day I die.  Totally disagree with the living on one level thing; don't do steps, you'll lose the ability to do steps and that would mean no travelling for me.

Travel is my goal to continue as long as possible, after regular travel becomes too hard, I'll condescend to cruises.

Will be setting up the weight lifting and exercise stuff in the basement bedroom.

How to Train for the Last Decade of Your Life, According to Peter Attia

Even With Alzheimer's Pathology, Healthy Lifestyles May Preserve Cognition

 But EXACTLY how do you rebuild cognitive reserve? I probably used up all of mine just surviving my stroke. I can't comment on this so useless article. Healthy lifestyle is way too non-specific to be of any use!

Even With Alzheimer's Pathology, Healthy Lifestyles May Preserve Cognition

More data support the idea of "cognitive reserve"

by Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today February 5, 2024

Cognitive function was better for older adults with healthy lifestyles even if they had Alzheimer's or other dementia-related pathologies, autopsy data showed.

A 1-point increase in a healthy lifestyle score was associated with better cognitive performance proximate to death (β=0.216, P<0.001), reported Klodian Dhana, MD, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and co-authors.

After adjusting for beta-amyloid load, healthy lifestyle scores remained independently associated with cognition (β=0.191, P<0.001), the researchers reported in JAMA Neurologyopens in a new tab or window.

Similarly, scores were independently associated with cognition after adjusting for phosphorylated tau tangle pathology (β=0.196, P<0.001) or global Alzheimer's disease pathology (β=0.193, P<0.001). Lifestyle scores ranged from 0 to 5 points, with higher scores indicating a healthier lifestyle.

"There are a lot of epidemiological studies, including ours, supporting the role of lifestyle in dementia risk," Dhana told MedPage Today. "However, as individuals age, there is a progressive accumulation of dementia-related brain pathologies such as beta-amyloid, which raises the question of whether the lifestyle is associated with cognition independently of dementia-related brain pathologies."

In 2020, the Lancet Commission reported that up to 40% of dementia cases may be prevented or delayed by modifying 12 risk factors, but whether a healthy lifestyle can boost "cognitive reserve" -- the ability to preserve cognition despite brain pathology -- isn't clear.

This study may help researchers better understand how modifiable risk factors are associated with dementia, noted Yue Leng, PhD, and Kristine Yaffe, MD, both of the University of California San Francisco, in an accompanying editorial.

"Over the past decade, studies have identified an increasing number of novel risk factors for dementia and have begun to uncover the mechanisms through which these modifiable risk factors could impact cognitive aging and prompted multidomain interventions," Leng and Yaffe wrote. "Despite this ongoing progress, critical questions remain to be addressed regarding the mechanistic pathways linking modifiable risk factors and cognitive aging and the directionality of this link."

This study "is one of the first to harness brain pathology to investigate these mechanisms and is a crucial step forward in addressing these important questions," the editorialists pointed out. "There is an urgent need for more well-designed randomized clinical trials to pave the way for dementia risk reduction in the era of precision medicine."

Dhana and colleagues used data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a longitudinal study with up to 24 years of follow-up and autopsy data. The researchers included 586 decedents with dietary and lifestyle data, cognitive testing proximate to death, and postmortem findings. Most decedents (70.8%) were female, and the mean age at death was 90.9 years.

Lifestyle factors were assessed annually and considered low risk or "healthy" based on MIND diet adherence, late-life cognitive activity scores, no current smoking, moderate or vigorous exercise activities for at least 150 minutes a week, and light to moderate alcohol intake. The mean of each lifestyle factor from enrollment to study until death was computed to help reduce reverse causation.

Cognitive function was measured annually with 19 tests. The researchers used global cognitive scores before death in this analysis; the median time between the last cognitive assessment and death was 0.8 years.

Postmortem beta-amyloid was evaluated at multiple brain regions, as was phosphorylated tau tangle density. Atherosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, microinfarcts, macroinfarcts, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Lewy body disease, hippocampal sclerosis, and TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) also were assessed.

A higher lifestyle score was associated with lower beta-amyloid load in the brain (β = −0.120, P=0.003), the researchers reported. The overall estimated association of lifestyle score on cognition was 0.216, with an indirect association through a beta-amyloid load of 0.025 (P=0.008), or 11.6%.

Excluding people with poor cognition at baseline or clinical Alzheimer's dementia proximate to death attenuated the estimates, but links between lifestyle scores and cognition remained statistically significant and independent of common brain pathologies.

The findings suggest that lifestyle may provide cognitive benefits even for people who have begun to accumulate dementia-related pathologies, Dhana noted. "However, we must note that this is an observational study using pathological data at autopsy, and additional clinical studies are needed to support these findings," he said.

The study sample consisted mainly of white volunteers who agreed to annual evaluations and postmortem organ donation, limiting the generalizability of the findings to others, the researchers acknowledged. In addition, lifestyle factors were self-reported.

• Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimer’s, dementia, MS, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinson’s, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain, and more. Follow

Disclosures

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging.

Dhana reported grants paid to his institution from the Alzheimer's Association. Co-authors reported relationships with the Alzheimer's Association, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Eisai, and Alzheimer's and Dementia.

Leng and Yaffe reported receiving grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Primary Source

JAMA Neurology

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowDhana K, et al "Healthy lifestyle and cognition in older adults with common neuropathologies of dementia" JAMA Neurol 2024; DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.5491.

Secondary Source

JAMA Neurology

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowLeng Y, Yaffe K "Harnessing brain pathology for dementia prevention" JAMA Neurol 2024; DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.5490.

Healthy habits in midlife may help delay onset of cognitive decline

Well, I assume I'm in midlife right now at age 66 since I'm going for 100+.

Healthy habits in midlife may help delay onset of cognitive decline 

LAS VEGAS — To slow or stave off symptoms relating to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, individuals should make healthy habits a priority early in life, according to a presenter at BRAINWeek 2022.

Gary Small

“How can we forestall the effects of Alzheimer’s disease?” Gary Small, MD, chair of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center, asked during his presentation. “This is something that is affecting all of us — our own aging and memory concerns and also those of relatives and friends.”

Source: Adobe Stock.

Small used the example of Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 in France at the age of 122, as well as the discovery of “blue zones” in Italy, Costa Rica and Japan — regions with a higher rate of older adults living beyond their 80s and 90s — to address the question of how to age well with as much cognitive faculties as possible.

It begins, Small, said with nongenetic factors, which include healthy behaviors with respect to exercise(daily walks up to 10,000 steps), diet(Yep, lots of coffee and wine.), mental activities
(Sudoku and ken-ken)and social interactions(I have lots of these.). Older adults who have “done their living” and are more motivated to make better, healthier choices are in turn likely to have fewer memory concerns and better cognitive function.

Increased attention to and reliance on technology, Small reasoned, doesn’t necessarily lead to poorer memory and decreased cognitive abilities. Although there is a clear generational divide with the use of digital devices such as iPads, Small cited several online games(What are they? Ask your doctor.) that can train a 70-year-old mind to perform like a 20-year-old’s with repetition over a period of several weeks.

Strategic interventions relating to learning, visualization and memory, as well as simultaneous and sequential exercises combined with physical movement such as stationary cycling, lead to improvements in visual memory and executive function, Small stated.

In addition, getting better sleep, making social connections and performing focused exercise such as tai chi can boost immune response and cognitive strength. However, according to Small, a variety of stress mitigation techniques are especially crucial, as increased stress levels lead to a twofold greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Weight and BMI also have negative correlations with memory development, Small said. Healthy eating habits are likely to boost one’s attitude and self-perception, which in turn can provide motivation to continue making better health decisions.

“If you know broccoli is a better side dish than French fries, you’re more inclined to choose broccoli,” Small said.

Timing for these changes, he continued, is key. An individual should begin during the period of midlife when the normal course of aging begins to give way to mild cognitive impairment. To help guide patients to make positive lifestyle changes, physicians should focus on education, creating fun and easy programs to follow, and emphasizing results to encourage healthy behaviors.

“Brain healthy habits can improve our quality of life right now and possibly stave off future symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s,” Small said.

Few US adults participate in all recommended healthy behaviors

What the fuck do you expect you blithering idiots? These are just guidelines, NOT PROTOCOLS. You want us to do something based on guesses?  This is just lazy blame the patient crapola.

Few US adults participate in all recommended healthy behaviors

Less than 7% of U.S. adults engaged in all five healthy behaviors recommended by public health institutions, including HHS, the CDC, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society, researchers reported. These behaviors include exercise, maintaining a healthy diet and normal BMI, and avoiding cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.
The analysis was based on 26,194 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey responses from adults aged 20 to 79 years. The results were recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“The data may have relevance toward the current pandemic where underlying health has an impact regarding case fatality rates,” Eric M. Hecht, MD, PhD, associate professor in the department of public health sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, told Healio Primary Care. “Individuals vulnerable to COVID-19 include those with obesity, smokers and illnesses tied to failure to perform healthy behaviors.”

Eric M. Hecht

Hecht and colleagues tracked respondents’ BMI over a 12-year period. They assessed other healthy behaviors — alcohol and cigarette use, healthy diet and exercise — using the following survey questions:

• Do you now smoke cigarettes?
• In the past 12 months, how often did you drink any type of alcoholic beverage?
• In the past 12 months, on those days that you drank alcoholic beverages, on average, how many drinks did you have?
• In a typical week, do you do any vigorous-intensity sports, fitness or recreational activities that cause large increases in breathing or heart rate like running or basketball for at least 10 minutes continuously?
• In a typical week, on how many days do you do vigorous-intensity sports, fitness or recreational activities?
• How much time do you spend doing vigorous-intensity sports, fitness or recreational activities on a typical day?
• How healthy is your overall diet?

The researchers found that smoking rates (P = .01) and adherence to a healthy BMI declined over time (P = .03). The percentage of respondents who participated in all five healthy behaviors over time ranged from 4.4% to 6.3%. Engagement in at least four behaviors ranged from 20.2% to 22.8% and participation in two or fewer behaviors ranged from 45.4% to 48.3%. The average number of total behaviors for the study cohort was 2.6.

Reference: Hecht EM, et al. Am J Prev Med. 2020;doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2020.02.013.

According to Hecht, there is no easy way for physicians to help increase patient participation rates.
“Most practitioners and public health educators tend to focus on one behavior, like smoking,” he said. “If the focus were on a number of behaviors, more substantial claims could be made by practitioners and public educators regarding substantial health benefits.”
Primary care physicians can consider using the “five A’s” model — Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange — to facilitate discussions with patients about changing unhealthy behaviors, according to research published in American Family Physician.
Sample talking points include asking patients about engagement in unhealthy behaviors, describing the risks of negative behaviors, providing resources and discussing the next steps toward healthy behavior.
When having discussions, “patients are likely to respond more favorably to ‘I’ statements (‘I recommend...’) rather than ‘You’ statements (‘You should...’),” H. Russell Seabright, PhD, MPH, professor of psychology at Lake Superior State University, wrote. – by Janel Miller
References:
Hecht EM, et al. Am J Prev Med. 2020;doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2020.02.013.
Larzelere M, et al. Am Fam Physician. 2012;85:591-598.
Meriwether RA, et al. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77:1129-1136.
Seabright HR. Am Fam Physician. 2018;98:719-728.

Five healthy habits net more healthy years

For those who want to enter the grave in a well preserved body and have no raconteur stories to tell in the afterlife. Not me.  

Part of my Hunter S. Thompson journey;
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”

Five healthy habits net more healthy years

Posted February 19, 2020, 10:30 am

Monique Tello, MD, MPH
Contributing Editor

Are healthy habits worth cultivating? A recent study suggests healthy habits may help people tack on years of life and sidestep serious illnesses, such as diabetes and cancer. After all, if you’re going to gain an extra decade of life on this earth, you want to enjoy it!

What did this research focus on?

Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health looked at data from more than 73,000 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) who were followed for 34 years, and more than 38,000 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) who were followed for 28 years.
In a previous study using the same data, these researchers had found that five low-risk lifestyle habits are critical for a longer life expectancy. The more of these habits people had, the longer they lived. The habits were:

• a healthy diet, which was calculated and rated based on reports of regularly eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids, and avoiding less healthy or unhealthy foods like red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat, and excess sodium
• a healthy physical activity level, measured as at least 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity, like brisk walking
• a healthy body weight, defined as a normal body mass index (BMI), which is between 18.5 and 24.9
• never smoking, because there is no healthy amount of smoking
• low-risk alcohol intake, measured as between 5 and 15 grams per day for women, and 5 to 30 grams per day for men. Generally, one drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol. That’s 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.

Even if they had only one of these habits, participants lived two years longer than if they had none. And if by age 50 they regularly practiced all five, women lived an extra 14 years and men lived an extra 12. That’s over a decade of extra life!

Are those extra years healthy?

In this new study, researchers wanted to know if those extra years were also healthy years. Participants were asked in follow-up questionnaires if they had developed medical problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease (heart disease and strokes), or cancer. The answers were verified by a review of medical records.
The study found that having at least four of the five healthy habits gave people significant protection against developing any of these illnesses: on average about a decade more of life free of these diseases.
Why is that important? These chronic diseases are associated with illness, hospitalizations, and even needing nursing home care. Diabetes, for example, can lead to disabling conditions, including blindness, amputations, and kidney failure requiring dialysis. The top 10 diagnoses resulting in nursing home care include strokes, heart disease, and obesity, according to the National Association of Health Data Organizations. These conditions are strongly associated with diet and lifestyle.

Steps for a longer, healthier life

If you’re approaching middle age, you can take steps to enjoy a longer and healthier life, one with a lower chance of becoming disabled or ending up in a nursing home:

1. Eat mostly plants, most of the time. That means fruits, vegetables, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, and whole grains. Avoid eating fast or fried foods, sweets and sugary beverages, and red and processed meats (like cold cuts) as much as possible.
2. Move your body every day as much as you can. Walking for 30 minutes a day (15 in the morning, 15 in the evening, maybe?) would give you the benefits these researchers found. But even as little as 10 minutes of movement per week has been shown to have health benefits.
3. Do the best you can to get to a healthy weight. And remember, even a little bit of weight loss, just a few pounds, is associated with real, positive health outcomes, like a lower risk of diabetes in people at risk.
4. Quit smoking — or vaping! Though this particular study looked at never having smoked, we know that there are significant health benefits to quitting at any time. It’s never too late to quit and enjoy a healthier life.
5. If you drink any alcohol, keep the recommended limits in mind: one drink per day max for women, two drinks per day max for men.

AHA aims to increase healthy life expectancy by 2030

I see NOTHING in here that even remotely suggests they will return stroke survivors to a healthy life by getting them 100% recovered. So you as a stroke survivor will continue to be screwed along with your children and grandchildren. Aren't you glad they are so fucking worthless?

AHA aims to increase healthy life expectancy by 2030

 As the number of deaths from CVD and stroke continues to decline, albeit at a slower rate than before, the American Heart Association is striving to increase healthy life expectancy both in the United States and globally, according to a presidential advisory, a statistical update and a policy statement prepared by the organization and published in Circulation.
“We know people are living longer thanks in part to nearly a century of dedicated efforts from volunteers, staff and many invaluable supporters joining the American Heart Association in our fight [against] heart disease and stroke, leading to improvements in disease control and prevention, advancements in medical treatments and improved lifestyle behaviors,” AHA President Robert A. Harrington, MD, FAHA, interventional cardiologist, Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and chairman of the department of medicine at Stanford University, said in a press release. “Unfortunately, not all those years are healthy ones, as the effects of chronic illnesses are increasingly impacting the quality of life of people at a much younger age than in the past.”
Heart disease, stroke statistics
The age-adjusted prevalence of all types of CVD was 10.6%, according to the paper. Men had higher age-adjusted prevalence of the following conditions compared with women:

• CAD (7.2% vs. 4.2%);
• heart disease (11.8% vs. 9.5%);
• stroke (3.3% vs. 2.5%); and
• hypertension (26% vs. 23.1%).

CVD-related death accounted for approximately 17.8 million deaths globally (95% CI, 17.5-18), which increased by 21.1% from 2007 (95% CI, 19.7-22.6), Salim S. Virani, MD, PhD, FAHA, professor of medicine and director of the cardiovascular disease fellowship program at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, staff cardiologist at Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston and chair of the writing group for the statistical update, and colleagues wrote. In contrast, the age-adjusted death per 100,000 population was 233.1 (95% CI, 229.7-236.4), which decreased by 10.3% from 2007 (95% CI, 11.4 to 9.3).

The American Heart Association is striving to increase healthy life expectancy both in the United States and globally, according to a presidential advisory, a statistical update and a policy statement prepared by the organization and published in Circulation.

Source: Adobe Stock

The mean global lifetime risk for stroke increased from 1990 to 2016 (22.8% to 24.9%; relative increase = 8.9%; 95% CI, 6.2-11.5) after adjusting for the competing risk for death by causes other than stroke. The age-adjusted rate for stroke death decreased by 13.6%, although the number of stroke deaths increased by 7.7% from 2007 to 2017.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2015 to 2016 determined that the overall prevalence of obesity in young patients was 18.5%. Obesity was also prevalent in 38.3% of adults, according to 2013 to 2016 NHANES data.

Healthy centenarian study

What EXACTLY is your doctor doing to insure you get to a healthy 100 even after your stroke?  Why doesn't your doctor know one damn thing about getting you 100% recovered, prevent your possible dementia, get you to 100? I expect my doctor to know exactly how to do that. But incompetence reigns supreme in the stroke medical world. 

Healthy centenarian study

A Cup Of Coffee Is Healthy, But 4 Isn't: EU Guidelines Suggest New Limit To Daily Intake

Well this is for healthy people so it obviously does not apply to me, and I'm not in the EU. I haven't been healthy for over 9 years. I completely disagree, no one has identified the EXACT amount of coffee to prevent dementia and Parkinsons. So until that occurs I'm doing 12 cups a day. 

A Cup Of Coffee Is Healthy, But 4 Isn't: EU Guidelines Suggest New Limit To Daily Intake