CDC: People live longer if they practice one or more healthy lifestyle behaviors

ATLANTA — According to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people that practice one or more healthy lifestyle behaviors are likely to live longer.

The researchers, which analyzed data collected from the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III Mortality study — a mortality follow-up of NHANES III survey participants aged 17 years and older who were recruited from 1988 to 1994 and followed through 2006 — discovered that those that engaged in all four healthy behaviors, which include not smoking, eating well, getting regular exercise and limiting alcohol consumption, were 63% less likely to die early, compared with people who did not practice any of the behaviors. Among the subjects examined, 47.5% had never smoked, 51% were moderate drinkers, 39.3% had a healthy diet and 40.2% were adequately physically active. The researchers noted that the percentage of people who reported low-risk behaviors did not differ significantly by gender. What's more, Mexican Americans had more healthy behaviors when compared with whites and African-Americans.

The research was published in the American Journal of Public Health.