One of the best ways to lower your health care costs is to become healthier. How? By reducing your risk for expensive-to-treat chronic conditions.

While the basics of a healthy lifestyle may seem obvious, a study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, makes the connection crystal clear.

Four healthy lifestyle factors together were found to be associated with as much as an 80 percent reduction in the risk of developing the most common and deadly chronic conditions. Those healthy habits were never smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy diet.

In fact, the study says, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes are largely preventable. The authors cite “an impressive body of research that has implicated modifiable lifestyle factors such as smoking, physical activity, diet, and body weight in the causes of these diseases.”

To pin down the reduction in risk linked to these factors, the researchers studied lifestyle data from 23,513 adults ages 35 to 65.

The responses were assessed to see how closely the people in the study stuck to the healthy habits. Follow-up questionnaires were filled out every two to three years, for an average total close to eight years.

Regardless of age, gender, education level, or job status, the more healthy lifestyle habits people had, the less likely they were to develop chronic diseases.

In fact, participants who had all four habits had a 78 percent lower risk of developing any of the chronic diseases during the follow-up period than those who had none of the healthy habits. Specifically, the four habits were associated with:

• A 93 percent reduced risk for diabetes
• An 81 percent reduced risk for heart attack
• A 50 percent reduced risk for stroke
• A 36 percent reduced risk for cancer

The bottom line: What your doctor has been telling you to do for years is more than good advice—it’s evidence-based medicine.

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