Study: Too much stress may shorten life expectancy

The research also revealed that a lack of exercise strongly reduced the life expectancy of 30-year-old men - by 2.4 years. On the other hand, things such as the consumption of plenty of fruits and vegetables could increase life expectancy: eating fruit by 1.4 years and eating vegetables by 0.9 years. The same factors impacted the life expectancy of both men and women.For 30-year-old women, example, smoking shortened the life expectancy by 5.5 years, diabetes by 5.3 years, and heavy stress by 2.3 years. The effects to the life expectancy of older people were similar but smaller than in younger age groups.

Differences between the life expectancies of men and women largely due to risk factors that can be changed, according to the researchers. "What was interesting about the study was how small the difference in the life expectancy of 30-year men and women was based on the same risk factor values - only 1.6 years," said study researcher Seppo Koskinen. The lifestyle choices that increase mortality, such as smoking, heavy alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise, are most common in the population groups whose social position is the weakest, the study said.

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