I recently came across a new study highlighting the importance of regular practice of three of the 6 Principles of Health and Longevity.
Here’s some of what it had to say:
Longevity. Healthy aging. Lifespan. Healthspan. Whatever you call it, if your goal is to live a long and healthy life (without overhauling everything you do on a daily basis), this is for you.
A healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of many diseases, so we know that how we treat our bodies helps to live a longer and healthier life. When we talk about a healthy lifestyle, we mean Sleep, Physical Activity, and Nutrition (known by the acronym SPAN).
While genetics does play a role in how healthy and long we live, a recent study estimates that the impact of genetics is less than 2% while our lifestyle—whether we smoke, exercise, etc.—can impact up to 17% of our healthy future. So, when it comes to healthy lifespan, nurture is a lot more impactful than nature. This means that we have a lot more control over our futures than our genes do.
Why is this so important?
The researchers note that “Adequate . . . SPAN are vital for health and well-being, and each has established links with lower risks of chronic disease and premature mortality.”
- “Insufficient sleep is associated with impaired metabolic and brain health through . . . insulin resistance, inflammation, and disruption of appetite hormones.”
- “Physical inactivity is a major contributor to . . . multiple chronic diseases; adhering to current physical activity guidelines is linked with approximately 30–61% lower all-cause mortality risk.”
- “Excessive calorie intake and unhealthy dietary patterns play a key role in . . . some of the most common non-communicable diseases, premature mortality, and the biology of aging itself.”
And “Sleep, physical activity, and nutrition are behaviourally interlinked,” for example:
- “Sleep deprivation can lead to lower physical activity due to fatigue, while exercise uptake may lead to improvements in sleep.”
- “Poor sleep upregulates signaling for hunger hormones and downregulates satiety hormones, directly influencing food intake and food choices.”
- “Additionally, low-quality diets negatively impact sleep by disrupting the neurotransmitters that regulate normal sleep–wake cycles.”
But, it’s not always effortless to make large, important healthful changes in all three of these areas. What if there was a research-based key that unlocked which area(s) to focus on for a longer, healthier future? And what if this key could determine the minimal improvements needed in each of these areas that would make a difference?
That’s what researchers in Australia and Europe wanted to figure out. They recently published their very practical findings in the journal BMC Medicine. The researchers followed 59,078 older adults for eight years, tracking their sleep, physical activity, and nutrition habits over time and seeing how long they lived.
So what did they find are the optimal amounts of SPAN (sleep, physical activity, nutrition) to live a long and healthy life?
LifeSPAN + HealthSPAN
Proper sleep, physical activity, and nutrition (SPAN) is good for everyone. But these three lifestyle habits are interlinked so it’s difficult to separate each one out individually. We know that lack of sleep can make you too tired to exercise and even boost your hunger hormones and cravings for less nutritious foods. Also, getting enough physical activity can help improve sleep. Not to mention that poor nutrition can negatively impact sleep cycles and reduce the energy needed for physical activity.
The researchers found that optimizing sleep, physical activity, and nutrition all at once—even in small amounts—can synergistically work together to improve longevity more than if any one or two are optimized alone.
We’re talking a 64% lower risk of premature death if you optimize all three of these areas.
They also found that even minimal improvements in all three areas at the same time can measurably improve lifespan. This is because all three of these areas work together to improve health.
Spoiler alert: Choosing just one area to improve is still beneficial. But doing even a small amount of all three (sleep, physical activity, nutrition) is recommended because they work together for your benefit.
So, what are these optimal and minimal lifestyle improvements to live a longer and healthier life?
Optimal (and minimal) sleep for a longer life
Sleep is important for healthy aging because not getting enough quality sleep impacts brain health and metabolism. Lack of sleep is linked with inflammation, insulin resistance, and disruption of appetite hormones.
The optimal amount of sleep for long-term health is 7.2-8 hours/day. If this seems doable right away then I encourage you to go for it. If this seems a bit too big of a challenge right now, then know that this study found healthy improvements when as little as 15 minutes of sleep were added.
Optimal (and minimal) physical activity for a longer life
Physical activity is important for healthy aging because lack of it is a major factor for multiple chronic diseases. Studies show that being moderate-to-vigorously active for at least 150 minutes per week (21 minutes each day) reduces risk of obesity, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and some cancers.
The researchers found that moderate-to-vigorous activity for at least 42 minutes (up to 103 minutes) each day is linked with optimal health. If this seems like a lot, then know that they found that even just 2 more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day showed a benefit.
Optimal (and minimal) nutrition for a longer life
Nutrition is important for healthy aging because consuming too many calories and not enough essential nutrients (protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals) leads to many chronic diseases and earlier demise.
The optimal nutrition for long-term health is one that “emphasizes higher intake of vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy, whole grains, and unprocessed oils and lower intake of refined grains, processed meats, unprocessed red meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages.” However, if there are just two small nutrition improvements you can make, try increasing your daily fruit intake by 1.5 servings and cooked vegetables by 1/3 cup. These can help you be well on your way to a healthier lifespan.
The synergistic association of all three factors
Here’s what the researchers conclude from this study:
- When looked at together, optimizing all three SPAN behaviours “corresponded to a 64% lower risk for all-cause mortality compared to the reference group.” This is more than when only one or two SPAN behaviours are optimized.
- Even small improvements can reduce all cause mortality by 10%:
- Increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity by 2 minutes/day
- Increasing sleep by 15 min/day
- Increasing daily intake of cooked vegetables by 1/3 cup or fruit by 1.5 servings.
In other words, according to this study, optimizing sleep, physical activity, and nutrition all at once—even in small amounts—can synergistically work together to improve longevity more than if any one or two are optimized alone.
How to get more sleep, physical activity, and nutrition
When it comes to sleep, can you try to get to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight? Maybe you can benefit from your room being a bit cooler or darker. Maybe you can try a more calming screen-free evening routine from now on.
To increase your physical activity every day, try making an appointment or meeting in your calendar to move in the way that you most enjoy (walk, cycle, swim, dance). If you’d rather have small “fitness snacks” throughout the day, set a reminder every 30-60 minutes to go for a quick walk or stretch. You can also try standing instead of sitting wherever you can (in meetings, on the phone) if that’s more doable.
Improving nutrition can simply be a matter of key substitutions. Choose fruits or nuts/seeds as nutritious snacks or desserts. Swap (some or all of) a white grain side dish (white rice or pasta) with a whole grain version or even a vegetable. Cut down (or eliminate) sugary drinks by reducing any sugar added to coffee/tea, and choosing plain soda water with citrus slices or berries instead of soft drinks.
And yet even if we know what to do, it’s not easy to make the necessary changes to our food and lifestyle, and even harder to make them consistently.
That’s why I invite you to join my 6-week program, LOVE YOUR BRAIN! Brain Health powered by Nutrition, Movement & Mindfulness.
Click HERE for more info and to sign up for the free INFO session and the 6-week program.
There are 2 options to participate:
- LIVE in-person in Collingwood on Friday mornings
- LIVE ONLINE on Monday evenings on Zoom
And both include a free INFO session so you can check it out before committing.
Hope to see you there!
Primary Reference
Stamatakis, E., Koemel, N. A., Biswas, R. K., Ahmadi, M. N., Allman-Farinelli, M., Trost, S. G., Inan-Eroglu, E., Del Pozo Cruz, B., Bin, Y. S., Postnova, S., Duncan, M. J., Dumuid, D., Brown, H., Maher, C., Fontana, L., Simpson, S., & Cistulli, P. A. (2025). Minimum and optimal combined variations in sleep, physical activity, and nutrition in relation to all-cause mortality risk. BMC medicine, 23(1), 111. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03833-x