Sleep, exercise, sex and sun – it can be that easy to extend your life. Read here which simple activities will bring you closer to the age of 100.
It is well known that exercise, sleep and sex are beneficial for your health. Unfortunately, these and other activities cannot be integrated into life for hours at a time.
You don’t have to: We’ll tell you how often you do what – and what you don’t! – must in order to live as healthily and as long as possible! Here you will find the best tips from 100-year-olds and age researchers.
Laughter has been proven to strengthen the immune system. After a laughing flash, there are more antibodies in the blood. In addition, happiness hormones are released and endurance is increased. Illnesses such as headaches and depression can also be alleviated through laughter. So go to laughter yoga if you don’t have funny people around you.
Loners have a shorter life expectancy than people who often surround themselves with their loved ones. Various studies have proven this. Friends make us happy, lower our stress levels and support us in difficult times and when making decisions. Researchers even found out how many friends you need for a long, happy life…
According to a study from the University of Oxford, 5 is the perfect number of close friends to meet frequently and in person (social media online friends do NOT help prolong life!). In addition, about a dozen other allies ensure happiness, health and the good feeling of not being alone.
The healthiest people who live the longest do so in a so-called Blue Zone. There are only five in the world: Loma Linda (California), the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia and the Greek island of Ikaria.
In these places, residents are more than twice as likely to age healthily and live into their 90s or even 100. But why? Studies show that residents of Blue Zones have integrated some life-prolonging measures into their everyday lives as a matter of course – and you can too, no matter where you live.
People in a Blue Zone eat fresh, unprocessed foods, mostly plants and fish and very little meat and sugar. They also have a purpose in life and are in close contact with other people. You spend a lot of time outside in the fresh air. Of course with good sun protection.
Nature has a positive effect on our health in many ways: daylight, for example, stimulates vitamin D production. This is important for strong bones until the end of life.
Researchers at Stanford University found that every minute spent outside can extend your life. Anyone who walked through forests for 90 minutes significantly reduced the risk of developing stress-related illnesses. Anxiety, depression and high blood pressure were also alleviated. A Harvard study even showed that women who live in rural areas surrounded by nature have a twelve percent lower death rate than city dwellers.
You don’t have to lift weights in the gym to age healthily. Exercising in the fresh air is the secret recipe of best-agers: But they do this in a natural way, without, for example, training like a maniac for a marathon. Instead, they walk a lot because you don’t have to completely exhaust yourself to be fit.
50 percent of what is physically possible is enough! This theory is also supported by Ayurveda teachings. In addition to brisk walks, stretching, yoga, meditation (proven to promote cell renewal), breathing exercises and swimming are also great ways to stay fit and healthy.
Let’s start slowly: the more sex you have, the better you feel. Both men and women benefit from the processes that take place in the body: happiness hormones are released, pain – for example in the head – can be alleviated and having fun in bed also keeps you fit! The risk of prostate and breast cancer is also reduced, as is blood pressure.
A study published in The British Medical Journal examined the connection between sex and years of life. The result: The participants had up to 50 percent better life expectancy. Ideally, you should have two orgasms per day. This can definitely be worked out on your own.
Even though ten hours of sleep sometimes feels like the best achievable state, it shouldn’t become the norm if you want to reach 100. Various research groups agree: Sleeping more than seven and less than 5.5 hours per night shortens life expectancy. By the way: Men who sleep next to a woman live healthier and longer lives. Unfortunately, the reverse is not the case.
Let’s just let the numbers do the talking: According to a study published in “Welt”, the life expectancy of a 40-year-old person is shortened by seven to nine years if they smoke more than ten cigarettes a day! If there are fewer than ten butts per day, that is still around five years less on this planet.
In summary: Walk quickly with friends to a vegetarian beach restaurant, don’t smoke, but laugh for at least two minutes, then go to bed to have sex and then sleep for 6.5 hours!
The original for this article “Turning 100 years old – 4 tips to extend your life” comes from Teleschau.