How To Extend Your Life Expectancy

If you want to extend your life expectancy, there are many things you can do.  And the younger you start, the more benefits you will experience.

1. Reduce calories.  Cutting back the amount you eat may extend your life span significantly, according to research studies with rodents.  Rats fed only 50% of what they would normally eat lived up to 50% longer than rats who ate freely.  Although animals on the restricted diet were slightly underweight, it did not cause any ill effects.
2. Keep physically fit.  The phrase "use it or lose it" may be the best guide in practicing fitness to extend life.  A regular exercise plan should include both aerobic and resistance workouts, as often as 3-5 times per week, alternating one form of working out with the other.
3. Eat a well-balanced diet rich in protein, veggies and fruit to give your body what it needs to heal itself.  Much of what we call aging happens because the body loses its ability to repair and rejuvenate itself.  A diet high in fried food, fast food and processed food is like putting cheap gas into a high-performance car.
4. Add immune-boosting foods to your diet like fish, yogurt, chicken soup and garlic.  A healthy immune system can fight off many threats to life expectancy.
5. Take a nutritional supplement to give your body what it doesn't get from diet.  A simple daily supplement can furnish a wide range of vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy.
6. Get enough sleep.  Deep sleep allows the body to repair itself and recover from daily stress.
7. Practice stress reducing techniques.  Too much stress results in damaging levels of cortisol in the body, causing high blood pressure, heart disease, and shortening life expectancy.
8. Quit smoking, and drink in moderation.
9. Laughter can extend life expectancy.  In one study, terminally ill patients who watched comedy films lived longer than those who didn't.
10. If you're bored, find something fun and interesting to do.  You don't want to "die of boredom!"
11. Stay connected with loved ones and, if you don't have loved ones, get a pet.  Loving others releases a hormone called oxytocin into the body.  Oxytocin makes you feel good, and the better you feel, the longer you will want to live.  A strong will to live can extend your life expectancy.

It has been said that we are healthy because we are happy, not happy because we are healthy.  So why not choose to be happy?  Its lots more fun than being miserable!