Do This in 40s. Die 10 Years Early?

[Diamond Princess]

Men who are in their 40s and smoke, have high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol will likely die 10 years earlier than their healthier friends, according to a large study of 19,000 men over a 38-year period from researchers at the University of Oxford in England.

The study: The BBC News reports that the team, led by Dr. Robert Clarke, analyzed data on more than 19,000 British civil servants ages 40 to 69 from 1967 to 1970 and then followed what happened to them 38 years later. In addition to completing a questionnaire about their medical history, smoking habits, employment level and marital status, participants had their height, weight, blood pressure, lung function, cholesterol and blood glucose levels measured. Of this group, 42 percent smoked, 39 percent had high blood pressure and 51 percent had high cholesterol. When the study ended in 2005, 13,501 of the men had died.

The results are startling: Men who had these three main cardiovascular risk factors--smoking, hypertension and high cholesterol--had a 10-year shorter life span from 50 years of age.

It gets worse. When all the risk factors are added to the mix, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and employment grade, there was a 15-year life expectancy difference between the 5 percent of men who had the highest number of risk factors and the 5 percent who had the lowest number of risk factors.

"This important study puts a figure on the life-limiting effects of smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol," Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, told the BBC. "It provides a stark illustration of how these risk factors in middle-age can reduce life expectancy. The good news is that all of us can make changes to help us live a healthy life for longer, even after 50." After all, it could make a decade of difference.

The study findings have been published in the British Medical Journal.