Researchers have calculated people can extend the length of their lives by up to 17 per cent by not smoking, drinking only moderately, eating healthily and keeping physically active.
Prof Khaw and colleagues, surveyed 20,244 men and women living in Norfolk in the mid-1990s. The participants, none of whom had known cancer or heart disease, were aged between 45 and 79.
....the healthiest group in the study were calculated to have a lifespan that was, on average, 14 years longer than those with the least healthy lifestyle.
Those with one point - for displaying only one healthy behaviour - were 2.5 times as likely to have died than the healthiest group.
Smokers were 77 per cent more likely to have died during the study period, and low alcohol intake was associated with a 26 per cent increased chance of survival.
Being physically active and having levels of vitamin C equivalent to eating five servings of fruit and vegetables increased chances of still being alive by the end of study by 24 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively.
