Religion good for the health

Seventh-Day Adventists, followers of a healthy lifestyle due to religious dictates, have significantly longer-than-average life expectancies, new research reveals.

In a study comparing California Adventists with Californians who were not members of the religion, researchers at Loma Linda University found that Adventists' life expectancies surpassed those of the general population.

Male Adventists had a gain of more than 7 years over other men, while female Adventists had a life expectancy nearly 4.5 years longer than that of other women.

"The number of years is really quite striking," lead researcher Dr. Gary E. Fraser said in an interview with Reuters Health.

He noted that Adventists have "always focused on health as a virtue," and these findings show they are perhaps the longest-lived group that has ever been formally studied.

In their research, Fraser and , David J. Shavlik used data from a 12-year study of health and lifestyle habits among more than 34,000 Seventh-Day Adventists aged 30 and older.

The investigators compared participants' mortality rates at various ages with those of white individuals in the general California population, and calculated life expectancies in the two groups.

According to the researchers, the expected ages of death among 30-year-old Adventists was about 81 for men and 84 for women.

Vegetarians, who accounted for around 30 per cent of Adventists, were expected to live even longer-to age 83 for men, and nearly 86 for women.

Based on the Adventists' lifestyle data-such as the fact that 40% exercised vigorously for at least 15 minutes three times a week, and fewer than 1 per cent currently smoked-Fraser and Shavlik estimate that these habits account for up to 10 years of life expectancy in this population.

"These results strongly suggest that behavioral choices influence the expected age at death by several years, even as much as a decade," they write.

Although the study did not include lifestyle information on the general California population, Fraser said the Adventists' rate of vegetarianism was significantly higher than that of the US population as a whole, as was their rate of regular exercise.

And the fact that current smoking was virtually non-existent among Adventists was "undoubtedly a big factor" in their longevity, he added.

The idea that eating well, exercising and shunning cigarettes promotes health is nothing new - experts continually hammer the message home.

What is new here, Fraser explained, is that clean living has been linked to a longer life.

"As far as I know," he said, "there's never been a quantification of the number of years one can expect to be added."

If these findings are confirmed in other studies, the "implications for public health are profound," according to Fraser and Shavlik.

The evidence, they write, suggests that Americans could add years to their lives in short order if they make major lifestyle changes.

And while most Americans may not want to forgo meat as so many Adventists do, they also do not have to, Fraser noted.

Vegetarians, he pointed out, typically eat higher-than-average amounts of fruits and vegetables and get much of their protein from legumes and low-fat dairy products.

Emulating these habits could also put meat eaters on the road to a longer life.