Our blog

Ever wonder how long life will be? How can a person change life so that it will be longer? Adopting a healthy lifestyle to affect health risk factors might be one way. There are many health risk factors that affect lifespan, including weight, substance use, and medical conditions. Some of these factors can’t be changed but some can. Those that can be changes are referred to a modifiable health risk factors. These factors can have a huge influence on lifespan as they can lead to hidden disease. In particular, obesity can significantly shorten lifespan, as a recent study highlights.

Obesity Affects Lifespan More than Smoking

This recent study on modifiable health risk factors was completed by researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and New York University School of Medicine. The results of the study were presented at the 2017 Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting in April. This study used 2014 U.S. data to compile hypothetical populations, each with a single risk factor eliminated, plus a hypothetical population with all risk factors eliminated. Change in mortality based on preventable life-years lost was examined for each group and was compared between the groups. Many modifiable risk factors were examined and the top five responsible for reducing life-years included obesity, diabetes, tobacco use, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, in that order.

The results of this study found that 47 percent more life-years were lost due to obesity than due to tobacco use. In fact, obesity resulted in the highest number of life-years lost out of all the risk factors examined. Researchers concluded that the results of this study highlight the importance of continued focus on weight loss, healthy eating, and diabetes management in the United States.

Reducing Risk Factors Increases Lifespan

The implications of this study are straightforward. To gain personal health control and increase lifespan, people need to work to reduce their risk factors. This might not look the same for everyone, however. While researchers can focus on risk factors in a general way, each person’s circumstances will influence the risk factors that are the most important to eliminate. As one researcher from the study pointed out, a person who is obese and suffers from alcoholism may need to focus on treating the alcoholism first, because that risk factor is the greater threat to that person’s well-being. Even though obesity is considered the greatest risk factor to the general population, alcoholism is considered the greatest risk factor to that specific person.

Regardless of circumstances, the key to reducing risk factors is to modify behavior related to health. This is easy for some and more difficult for others. The action needed to reduce risk factors is also different for everyone. Some people may need to change their eating habits, some may need to increase their activity levels, some may need to take medication, and some may need to do all three. Other factors, such as medical conditions, family history, and job requirements may also affect a person’s ability to influence risk factors.

Personal Health Tracking Helps to Reduce Risk Factors

One action that can help bring attention to risk factors is to complete regular health risk assessments at home. By doing self-checks of risk factors such as weight and blood pressure at home, people can establish baseline levels for these factors and can see changes over time. This data can help people to know when the lifestyle changes that they have implemented are working and how much influence they are having on overall health. If a person can see his or her blood pressure decreasing over time after making dietary changes, that person will be motivated to continue to reduce blood pressure. The health and wellness tracking data makes this possible.

Home health testing can also help people to gain the discipline needed to make lifestyle change happen. By taking the actions of collecting data such as weight, blood pressure, and heart rate on a regular basis, people incorporate health level measurement into their daily routines. This added structure also helps make lifestyle change, such as regular exercise, part of the daily routine as well.

HomeLab by Quantihealth offers the health evaluation equipment and online health measurement apps necessary to monitor health at home. For more information, visit www.thequantihealth.com.

 

Tags: Obesity, hidden disease, Personal health control, health level measurement, monitor health at home