HealthDay has reported that a CDC study finds that good diet, no smoking, and regular exercise (maintaining a healthy weight) lowers the risk of chronic disease by 80%. The recent article also quotes Dr. David L. Katz, director of internal medicine and preventive medicine/public health at the Prevention Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. He called the strength of the connection between healthy behavior and long, healthy life "incredible."
"This study is essentially a reaffirmation that an amazingly short list of behaviors, which we've been hearing about for about 15 years, massively influence our risk for premature death and for developing all of the major chronic diseases all of us spend most of our time studying and being concerned about," Katz said.
"And so I think of this study as an invitation to every mom and dad -- to every family -- to try and shore up their commitment to eating well, and try to make exercise part of their routine culture, and to not smoke," he observed. "It's an opportunity to endow your child with an 80 percent reduced likelihood of ever getting a heart attack or ever dying of cancer."
Still, it's tough in a sedentary, affluent age to take some of these simple steps, Katz added. "It's an incredible opportunity that we have thus far failed to exploit," he said.
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