HOW ONE SHOULD LIVE IN MIDDLE-AGE TO INCREASE LONGEVITY AND HAVE MANY YEARS OF HEALTHY LIFE?

Sustained good health and longevity are very important dimensions of good life to most of us. In the last 100 years, life expectancy has increased in Finland from 50 years to 73-80 years. The greatest disease burden in Europe comes from non-communicable diseases (NCD), a group of conditions that includes for example cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, mental health problems, and type 2 diabetes. WHO published recently a strategy to promote a comprehensive and integrated approach for tackling NCD. The goal of this strategy is to avoid premature death and significantly reduce disease burden from NCD, improving quality of life and making healthy life expectancy more equitable within and between Member States in Europe (WHO, 2007). Key messages of the strategy are prevention of chronic disease throughout a life and encourage people to be empowered to promote their own health, interact effectively with health services, and be active partners in managing disease. Although risk factors of chronic diseases are quite well known, much less is known how one live in middle-age to avoid chronic diseases longer.

In Finland we share the global lack of deeper understanding regarding possibility of middle-aged subject to make efficient but easy choices that increase the number of health years. It is well known that smoking and obesity shorten your life but is it more efficient to quit smoking or lose weight? It is still unknown whether it is more important to live healthy (i.e. eat well, maintain healthy body weight) or does majority of the population have such genetic heritage that way of life does not count.

Therefore we utilize unique set of prospective studies (ELINA-consortium) to answer questions mentioned earlier, what should middle-aged people do to increase longevity and years of health life? This project will increase knowledge about long term effects of individuals own choices for all scientific world, public health authorities and for general public. This consortium bring together set of researchers on the fields of nutritional epidemiology, genetics, geriatrist and public health, fields which are all important studying questions like this.

Here is Sari's grandma Hanna Vartiainen, who has been fishing all her life and eaten huge amounts of fish from Lake Kiurujärvi. She is now 93 years old and still lives at the countryside... So, maybe fish is good for your longevity also...

For further information, please contact Sari Voutilainen (sari.voutilainen at uku.fi)