Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of disability and death in the United States.
If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to prevent or significantly delay the onset of these diseases.
Fortunately, lifestyle can play an important role in keeping these conditions at bay. There are several things you can do minimize risk.
First and foremost, it is essential not to smoke. If you are a smoker, your risk shoots way up and it’s possible none of the other lifestyle habits will make a difference.
Assuming you don’t smoke, here are 4 more powerful ways to avoid chronic illness:
1. Maintain a healthy body weight & good body composition
You want to maintain a BMI that is within the healthy range, but weight alone is not enough. It is important to also have good body composition, characterized by having a higher percentage of muscle and lower percentage of fat (visceral fat is especially problematic). The rest of this list will help you achieve this objective.
