Longevity Tips

Some interesting reports on the subject of living longer:

One study that will excite chocolate lovers is a Swedish report that eating chocolate 1 to 3 times per month cut the risk of developing heart failure by 26% and eating 1 or 2 servings per week cut the risk by 32%. Eating chocolate 3 or more times a week did not decrease the risk.

The question that must always be asked is “what other habits did the occasional chocolate users have that others did not? The researchers pointed to other studies showing that chocolate contains substances that can help control blood pressure to explain the observed benefit, but it is difficult to explain how eating chocolate once a month could, in itself, keep someone from developing heart disease in later life.

Chocolate-lovers can at least find comfort in the observation that an occasional chocolate may be part of a healthy lifestyle.

Another report added confirmation to what is already known – being physically fit helps a person live longer. A study of individuals between the ages of 65 and 92 revealed that the more physically fit people are the lower the likelihood that they will die at a given age. The mortality rates of people in the upper fifth of fitness were 60 % lower than those in the lower fifth of fitness. As physical fitness level rose mortality rates fell throughout the people observed. Those who became fit after the initial testing were 1/3 less likely to die each year than those who remained unfit.

Fitness was achieved by getting the body moving for 20 – 40 minutes daily. Taking a brisk walk was a common method of achieving and maintaining fitness.

Do you suppose physically-fit chocolate-lovers are enjoying life more than those who develop heart failure or die prematurely?

Dr. Dale Peterson

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