Healthy lifestyle factors ‘prevent disease more when combined’

Obese women who lose weight reduce their risk of developing diseases, however, they can reduce it even more if they adopt other healthy lifestyle habits, a study has shown.

It is well known that smoking, eating unhealthily, avoiding exercise, drinking alcohol and being overweight increase a person’s chances of developing certain health problems, such as heart disease.

However, researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center have studied whether combining these creates a greater risk.

They found that being normal weight, having low belly fat, participating in regular physical activity, avoiding passive smoking and consuming higher amounts of fruit and vegetables reduced mortality in Chinese women who did not smoke or drink alcohol regularly.

“The good news is that many of these factors can be improved by an individual’s motivation to change unhealthy behaviours,” said study leader Dr Wei Zheng.

A special issue of the European Journal of Cancer, published this month, claimed that excess weight is one of the biggest risk factors for colon cancer.

How many of the unhealthy lifestyle habits listed above do you have?