How long do you think you'll live, eh?
While most of us recognize that, on average, people are living longer these days, few of us grasp how much longer and the factors that drive increased longevity.
While there are several calculators floating around that can give you a decent idea of what might lie ahead, few use any Canadian data -- until now at least.
This calculator, created by Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, asks questions about you about your lifestyle with eye to comparing your odds with fellow Canadians.
In some respects, the numbers won't tell you anything you don't know, but they're still hard to ignore. Overall, Ontarians would gain 7.5 years of life expectancy if everyone were in the healthiest category for all five behavioural risks examined.
Between them, those big five unhealthy habits -- smoking, drinking, eating, lack of physical activity, stress -- account for more than 60 per cent of premature death and are major contributors to the end-of-life biggies like heart disease, cancer, and COPD.
Of course, for many, lifestyle choices are just one part of the equation. Family history, income, education, work environment ... all have an immense impact on health and life expectancy. But, in many instances, you can't do that much about them.
A few clicks here, however, and you can see the potential impact of the changes that you might be able to make.
Do you ever think this way? Or really is it all business as usual, regardless of the odds?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: SP | Apr 3, 2012 10:05:42 AM
Where in the calculator can we input data for breating polluted air, working excessive hours or eating food that is substandard but the only option available at our supermarkets?
Being that as it may, I try to control what I can, but even changing the variable available to me, my life expectancy won't go higher than 84 despite my grandfather living to his late 80's & great grandfather living to his mid 90's.
So it would appear that shorter life expectancy nowadays is 'business as usual' :-)
Posted by: KARL V | Apr 5, 2012 10:04:55 AM
PREVOUS ARTICAL SHOW PLUS MINUS ON AGEING DUE TO MANY FACTORS BIGGEST BEING PLUS MINUS OF 30YEARS AND THAT WAS... STRESS.... AND SINCE CANADA WASS RATED ONE OF THE 5 HAPPIEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD WE SHOULD ALL LIVE HAPY EVER AFTER ...... NOT...WHERE EDUCATED AND IF U OPEN YOUR EYES TO ALL THE MEDIA THE WORLDS GOING TO POT .....OVER POPULATION GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION CORUPTION GOVERMENT RUNNING OUT OF OIL AGING POPULATION NEW VIRUSES AND THE LIST GOES ON ....WE NEED MORE POSITVE TO OUT WAY THE REALITY OF HOW COMPLICATED THE WORLD HAS GOTTING ... THE POOR WINE OOOO ON THE STREET CORNER MITE BEING DOING IT BECACAUSE HE CANNOT HANDLE THE STRESS OF THE WORLD AND AVOIDING BEING THE PERSON THAT DOES SOMETHING TERRIBLE IN LIFE.... WHERE HERE FIRST TO SURVIVE ROOF OVER OUR HEAD FOOD AND TRY TO BE HAPPY IN ORDER TO DO THIS WE HAVE HAD TO DO WHAT U HERE ALLTHE TIME AT THAT IS GIVE ME THE MONEY I KNOW THIS IS A BLURR OF INFO BUT BOTTOM LINE IS LOWER YOUR STREES WHAT EVER WAY U CAN WHILE NOT HURTING ANY ONE ELSE IS A FAIR WAY TO LIVE LONGER I SAY
Posted by: ken smith | Apr 5, 2012 11:52:44 PM
you live tillyou die and not one second longer,and every body that is born will die when its there turn,
no body gets a free ride, every , kings and queens will go the same as the poor slob on the street,
and if you think you are special like a movie star , boy have you got a rude awakening coming.
because when there turn came they went , live your life as if your turn was to morrow, enjoy it have as much fun as you like, as long as you earn it without hurting any one else,remember live for today
and hope fore tomorrow,and be prepared to passon,
ken
Posted by: Jim Hope | Apr 6, 2012 3:45:25 AM
I totally agree with Ken Smith: "You live 'till you die"....that's equally inevitable for every living human being. In the meantime, live life as Ken says, "Live life to the fullest, in the present, not the pass, or getting stressed-out about the future"...alot of people live life in the pass just to stay miserable!...and why should you worry about 5 years from now: you could walk across the street to the 7/11 store in the next 10 minutes, get hit by a car, and be a DOA! How do you want to be remembered? As someone that was always miserable?...or someone that was always happy that people liked to be around. Also, keep yourself in total vibrant health by not smoking, abstaining from heavy alcohol usage, synthetic pharmaceudical and/or illecite drugs, get plenty of the right exercise, eat right (Life Food, not the Dead Processed Fas Foods), think positively, and you'll live to a ripe old age doing what you love doing 'till it's your time to start pushing up daisy too: "You are the product of what you eat (and how you eat), what you do (or don't do), and think all day". Also, just because some prevalent terminal disease/ailment runs in your family, it doesn't by no means, mean you're destined to succumb to it as well!!...you have a choice mentally, and phyically to get around these fallicies/myths..."Nothiing happen to you physically until first conjured up in your Deep Mind/Subscious Mind".
Posted by: Valerie | Apr 6, 2012 9:11:48 AM
Wow, are Canadians ever illiterate!
Posted by: John Tesh | Apr 6, 2012 11:15:46 AM
I always find these "Death Clocks" amusing.
This one for example allows for several extra years of extra life depending on education alone, thats right kiddies want to live, stay in school...afterall, if your dumb, you might walk infront of a bus or something.
Going from zero exercise, to 5 hours daily only results in a extra two years of life, which, over 40 years, is around 8 years of exercise, so spend a big chunk of your life staying fit, you get a extra 2 to enjoy that nursing home, thats right kiddies, get outside and play and get that exercise, you'll live longer, but spend more time on the exercise than you will benifit from the end result.
These things all have simple patterns, this one is:
Dont smoke
Eat lots of fruit and veggies, but not potatos
Get exercise
Dont stress out
And be educated.
So uneducated smokers that eat very little fruits/veggies and get little exercise with a hecktic daily routine (higher stress) can expect around 70 years of miserable life.
Where as, a well educated, non-smoker that eats their own body weight in fruit/veggies weekly, that spends 5 hours a day at the gym, with a totally care-free and low stress lifestyle can expect around 75-78 years of enjoyable life.
These things are always so biased, even when the "Dr's" that come up with them try not to be.
Posted by: JD | Apr 6, 2012 2:06:33 PM
Judging by the grammar and spelling of these posts, if education and intelligence is a factor in a long life, most of these people will be dead next week. Wow. Learn to write a coherent sentence if you want to be taken seriously.
Posted by: Alejandro | Apr 6, 2012 2:55:12 PM
@ JD
HAHAHAHAHHA. True, true.
Posted by: Les | Apr 6, 2012 11:26:35 PM
Really doesn't matter if you can spell or have great grammar...guess what....nobody gets out alive. Burn the candle at both ends and enjoy the time you have.
Les