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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: There is evidence supporting the lifestyle pillars of medicine that patients should know about, a speaker said. Being empowered by this information can help them age in a healthy way. ORLANDO \u2014 Data showing the benefits of lifestyle medicine can empower patients to focus on healthy aging, according to a speaker here. Kerry W. Reding, PhD, MPH, RN, FAHA, a professor of biobehavioral nursing and health informatics at the University of Washington, offered a presentation on what decades of research from the Women\u2019s Health Initiative have revealed about the intersection between lifestyle medicine and longevity at the annual ACLM conference.
Healio spoke with Reding to learn more about longevity for women, the evidence behind lifestyle medicine\u2019s effects on longevity and how that evidence can be translated into practical strategies. Healio: Why is this an important topic for healthcare providers to know about? Reding: People seem eager for guidance on how to live longer and healthier lives, but can also be overwhelmed by all the information that comes through our news feeds and our social media, and it can make it challenging to discern what\u2019s truly an evidence-based strategy or recommendation. I wanted to present on lifestyle factors from the perspective of healthy aging and longevity because there is so much out there that is based on rigorous science and these evidence-based strategies can inform on how people can change their behaviors in order to improve their health span. Also, with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, it\u2019s really a great opportunity to showcase all the research and literature that show how the six pillars relate to longevity. I\u2019ve been involved with the Women\u2019s Health Initiative study for about 15 years, and felt it was noteworthy to describe how the WHI has become such a great resource for understanding lifestyle factors in relation to healthy aging and longevity. In part, that\u2019s because the study\u2019s been going on for over 30 years, and along that time, it has been gathering information on people\u2019s lifestyle factors while at the same time going through a rigorous assessment of any chronic conditions or disabilities that have developed in people over time. So, with those two pieces of prospectively collected data, there\u2019s a vast amount of data to use to better understand how lifestyle factors are related to not just longevity but also healthy aging, that concept of being able to thrive in your 80s and 90s while still in good health. Healio: How do the pillars of lifestyle medicine affect longevity? Do these pillars affect women\u2019s longevity differently? Reding: It is clear that lifestyle pillars impact longevity. We see in particular that physical activity is a notable pillar. From the literature, we see people can cut their risk for early mortality in half through regular physical activity. And what I highlight in my talk is that we see this also in a dose response relationship \u2014 so, with the increasing amount of physical activity is an improvement in longevity. The reason that\u2019s important is, one, it shows that any little amount you do is going to improve your longevity. It\u2019s not an all-or-none strategy. It\u2019s like, \u201cDo the best you can, do something every day, and if you don\u2019t hit 10,000 steps, that\u2019s fine, but even reaching 3,000 steps, 5,000 steps is going to be good for your health.\u201d The other part about that dose response curve is that when we see that in in a relationship, we see that it provides some support for a causal relationship, so we have more indication it\u2019s actually the physical activity that is causing longevity to be improved, rather than, \u201cWe think there\u2019s other factors at play.\u201d The other thing that was really interesting to me, I recently met Gianni Pes in Sardinia, and he\u2019s the originator of the blue zones concept. He was circling in blue on a map the areas that had notable longevity. When I talked to him and was curious about his 30 years of research in this area \u2014 what were the things that he was personally doing? \u2014 physical activity was his No. 1 thing. That felt pretty validating because that\u2019s what I see the data shows, but he really highlighted for me that physical activity is within our control to be able to improve our own longevity. I\u2019d also say what has shown up in the data is around social connectedness. So, unfortunately in the U.S., [it is] an overlooked factor, but can have a great impact on reducing mortality. I cite in my talk a 91% elevated risk for mortality for people with low social integration in a meta-analysis, and the work done in this seminal paper essentially showed that social isolation is the new smoking. I think that\u2019s something that we could take as a message to Americans to really think about how we could improve our social integration in our day-to-day lives. In general, I think presenting at ACLM is quite gratifying because it\u2019s an audience that, like me, is really interested in in having this discussion about how lifestyle factors are affecting healthy aging, and we all have the shared goal of bringing that to our patients and then disseminating that information more widely. Healio: What evidence from the Women\u2019s Health Initiative demonstrates the impact lifestyle medicine has on longevity? Reding: The WHI collected data on lifestyle and behavioral factors and chronic conditions over its 30 years of existence, and it also conducted a series of clinical trials. 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