Daily HealthBeat Tip - March 12, 2008

Healthy over 90

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Keep living right, and you have a solid chance of being a healthy, active 90-plus-year-old.  A study finds men age 70 had a 54 percent chance of living to 90 if they continued things like staying active, controlling their weight and blood pressure, and not smoking.

Laurel Yates of Brigham and Women’s Hospital saw that in data from a long-running study of the health of men doctors. Her study in Archives of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

There is a reverse side, though.  The fewer things the men did right, the lower their chances of reaching 90.

``For that poor individual who had unfavorable levels of all factors – obese, smoke, diabetes, hypertension and sedentary – the probability was negligible: 4 percent.’’ (11 seconds)

It looks like bad habits take you from even money to long odds.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March, 11 2008