Unhealthy behaviors cut 12 years off life

Unhealthy behaviors cut 12 years off life: study - Health & Families, Life & Style - The Independent: "A killer quartet of unhealthy behaviors - smoking, drinking, poor diet and inactivity - can slash average life span by 12 years, but lifestyle changes can help stem the damage, researchers have discovered.

Individuals who engaged in all four high-risk behaviors suffered three times the death rate for cancer and heart disease, and four times the death rate from other causes, as people who engaged in none of the behaviors, according to research published in Monday's issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers studied 4,886 people 18 or older in 1984 and 1985, and assigned a health behavior score for each person based on their participation in the bad behaviors".