Leading a long and fulfilling life largely hinges on your ability to avoid chronic complications that shorten your lifespan.<\/p>\n
One of the most important proactive measures you can take is to maintain a healthy weight because obesity can lead to life-threatening conditions such as coronary heart disease.<\/p>\n
In fact, coronary heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the UK and worldwide so it is important to maintain a healthy weight to ward off the threat of developing this deadly disease.<\/p>\n
Intermittent fasting, an eating pattern that involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting, has been shown to attack this harmful belly fat, however.<\/p>\n
A large review of studies found that following an intermittent fasting style of eating helped reduce visceral fat by four to seven percent over a period of six to 24 weeks.<\/p>\n
Intermittent fasting has also been shown to provide benefits to heart health.<\/p>\n
The dietary approach has been shown to offer protection against mechanisms that lead to heart disease.<\/p>\n
Studies have found that intermittent fasting can improve blood pressure, total and LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, inflammatory markers and blood sugar levels - risk factors associated with the deadly condition.<\/p>\n
In addition to a healthy dietary approach, numerous studies show that regular exercise can extend your lifespan.<\/p>\n
In fact, a recent study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 68th Annual Scientific Session, reveals the health benefits of exercising over the age of 70.<\/p>\n
The study found that being physically fit provides a more complete picture of an older persons health than the typical cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and smoking.<\/p>\n
Seamus P. Whelton, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the study's lead author, said: \"We found fitness is an extremely strong risk predictor of survival in the older age group - that is, regardless of whether you are otherwise healthy or have cardiovascular risk factors, being more fit means you're more likely to live longer than someone who is less fit.<\/p>\n
The findings, based on an analysis of more than 6,500 people medical records, found that higher fitness was associated with significantly increased rates of survival.<\/p>\n
The most fit individuals were more than twice as likely to be alive 10 years later compared with the least fit individuals.<\/p>\n
In light of the findings, Whelton called on doctors to incorporate it into their health assessments of older age patients: Assessing fitness is a low-cost, low-risk and low-technology tool that is underutilised in clinical practice for risk stratification.<\/p>\n
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Read more: Leading a long and fulfilling life largely hinges on your ability to avoid chronic complications that shorten your lifespan. One of the most important proactive measures you can take is to maintain a healthy weight because obesity can lead to life-threatening conditions such as coronary heart disease. In fact, coronary heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the UK and worldwide so it is important to maintain a healthy weight to ward off the threat of developing this deadly disease. Continue reading
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