BBC健康长寿建议：做到这三大领域和9大技巧

BBC《女性时空》节目（BBC Radion 4 Woman's Hour）邀请各路专家，为你总结了对人类健康、幸福和长寿影响最重要的三大领域，并告诉你九大技巧，希望能为你带来真正的改变和不同。

一：社交领域

人是社会的产物，我们都需要跟人互动和交往。根据心理学家朱丽叶·霍尔特-伦斯塔德（Julianne Holt-Lundstad）的观点，友情对长寿的影响和戒烟一样重要。

朱丽叶认为，友好的交往对我们的身心健康有着潜移默化的正面影响。她建议人们用这两种方式来营造友好关系：

1.巩固与家人、朋友和邻居的关系

发展和维持与家人、老朋友等的良好关系是需要时间和努力的。因此，要花些时间跟家人、好友维系感情。这一点非常重要。朱丽叶表示，社会交往跟身体锻炼一样需要付出时间和努力。

2.如果没有老朋友，不妨结交新朋友

朱丽叶表示,如果你的亲人和故友相继老去和离世，或者是因为你搬家的缘故，社交圈子的人数日渐稀少，不妨努力去结交新朋友。

当然，像任何事情一样，建立和维系新友情并非一件易事，需要付出时间和努力。

朱丽叶说，你需要勇气走出去，才能找到志同道合的朋友。要知道，不是每个人都与你合拍。有时，你需要不断地尝试。

即使你一时半会找不到良友也不要气馁。好的友情并非一夜之间就能发生，它是需要投入时间和精力。因此，要有耐心，但也不要期待太多。

二：饮食健康

饮食对人们健康的影响恐怕不难理解。伦敦大学学院的遗传学家帕特里奇教授（Linda Partridge）专门从事老龄化以及衰老是如何影响人体的研究。

与此同时，剑桥大学的肖教授（Kay-Tee Khaw）曾在欧洲领导过饮食对老年人健康影响的大型科研项目。

3.控制饭量

帕特里奇教授说，要想维持健康的体重，就不要吃得过多。同时，要保持吃饭和运动之间的平衡。

4.注意蛋白质摄入

帕特里奇教授建议不要摄入太多的蛋白质。但是，随着年纪增长可以适度增加蛋白质的摄入量，以避免身体虚弱和肌肉无力。

5.尽量少吃盐和糖

肖教授说，盐和糖在加工食品中最多，因此最好避免吃过度加工的食品。

帕特里奇教授补充说，含糖量高的饮食会大大增加心血管疾病和代谢性疾病的风险。

6.多吃植物性食品

肖教授说，如果有可能，坚持每天吃五份水果和蔬菜。最理想的饮食还应包括坚果和扁豆类。

三：加强运动

伯明翰大学的劳德教授（Janet Lord）是该校炎症与衰老研究所的主任。她提出了能让你保持身体健康的三件事。

7.常做有氧运动

什么是有氧运动呢？劳德教授说，任何能让你心肺活动加快的运动都是有氧运动。你能微微出汗，心跳加快就可以。如果一个星期能够做150分钟的这样运动就很好。

如果没有大把时间，你可以把它分为10分钟一小节，一周做15次。你还可以把它融合到日常的杂事中去，比如遛狗或是早晨出去买份报纸，但要快步走才能达到效果。

8.加强肌肉力量

劳德教授表示，保持肌肉力量很重要，特别是随着人体衰老。肌肉力量强意味着你从椅子上站起来不费劲，包括如厕之后站起来等等，这样就能让你保持独立性。

劳德教授建议一个小实验：把双臂交叉然后从椅子上站起来，数一数在30秒之内你可以做到几次？

如果你在30秒内只能做两到三次，那建议你每天都做这个练习，逐渐增强肌肉力量。

还有一个简单的练习也可以改善你的肌肉力量：左右手分别拎起装着土豆的购物袋，轻轻拎起，然后再放下。这样反复做也会增强你的肌肉力量。

9.不要久坐不动

这对坐办公室的脑力劳动者来说，可能不是个好消息。劳德教授指出，一定要注意经常起来活动一下。

她还表示，如果你连做一两个小时不动的话，那你之前的运动就都白做了。劳德教授甚至把久坐不动的危害跟吸烟相提并论，可见其危害有多大。

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How to live a longer (and healthier) life: Nine simple tips

Yes, we’re all going to get old - but what if we could live a longer, happier and healthier life?

This is where science can help, from informing what we should be eating to how we move and even reinforcing the importance of spending time with our friends.

As part of a BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour series on living longer, we’ve quizzed a panel of experts to find out the changes that can have the biggest impact on our health, happiness and longevity. Here are the three areas you can really make a difference…

Socialising

Having friends can be just as important to living longer as giving up smoking, according to psychologist Julianne Holt-Lundstad, who is a huge champion of the positive impact socialising can have on our well-being. She recommends two different approaches to this…

Keep in mind best friends don’t occur overnight and that relationships take time to develop. /Julianne Holt-Lundstad/

1. Strengthen your existing relationships with family, friends and neighbours

“Relationships take time and effort to both develop and maintain, so devoting time to existing relationships is important. Just as we need to be physically active we need to be socially active,” says Julianne.

2. If you don’t have existing relationships, develop new ones

“Added effort is needed to create new relationships if you find your social circle dwindling,” says Julianne, whether it’s because of family moving away or simply people dying around us as we get older. Although she acknowledges it can be hard work.

“You really need to put one-self out there, finding others with similar interests. Not all groups are going to jive with you… finding your own tribe may take a little trial and error, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t instantly find a best friend. Keep in mind best friends don’t occur overnight and that relationships take time to develop. Being patient and not expecting too much too soon can be helpful.”

What we eat

When it comes to what to eat to stay healthy, there’s a lot of advice out there. Here’s a simple guide from Professor Linda Partridge, a geneticist from University College London who is an expert in ageing and how it affects the body, and Professor Kay-Tee Khaw from Cambridge University, who ran a huge study into the impact of diet on the lives of older people in Europe…

3. Portion control

“Don’t eat too much, so you maintain a reasonable weight,” says Linda Partridge, “and combine it with exercise to keep an equilibrium.”

4. Watch your protein

“Don’t eat too much protein in your diet,” advises Linda, “but you should eat more if you’re older to avoid frailty and muscle weakness.”

5. Minimise salt and sugars

“[These] are mostly found in processed foods so avoid ultra-processed foods,” advises Kay-Tee, while Linda adds that diets high in sugars can “hugely increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease.”

6. Up the plant food

“Five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, if possible,” says Kay-Tee, who adds that the ideal diet should also be “high in lentils and nuts.”

Move your body

Professor Janet Lord is the director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham. Here are the top three things she says will help you to stay physically healthy (and the last one might surprise you)…

If you sit for one or two hours, you’ll undo all the good work your exercising has done. Sitting is the new smoking. /Professor Janet Lord/

7. Regular aerobic exercise is good

Basically anything that increases your heart rate and gets your lungs going. “You know you’ve been doing aerobic exercise,” says Janet, “if you’re a little bit sweaty and your heart’s beating a little bit faster.” And how much? “You want to do about 150 minutes a week in 10 minute bursts. So it might be when you’re going for a newspaper in the morning or you’re walking the dog. Don’t dawdle, go at a good pace, that’s number one. That’s looking after your heart and also your brain.”

8. Muscle strength matters

“You need to keep your muscle strength,” says Janet. “This means that you can get out of a chair easily, and that in turn means you can get off the toilet and with that you can keep your independence – it’s as simple as that. Cross your arms and see how many times you can get out of your chair in 30 seconds. If you can only do it two or three times, do it every day and see if you can build your muscles up. Other simple things could be having a carrier bag with potatoes either side and gently lifting them up and down to build your strength.”

9. Don’t sit still for too long

It’s important to watch how much time you’re sedentary, which is bad news for office workers. “If you sit for one or two hours,” says Janet, “you’ll undo all the good work your exercising has done. Sitting is the new smoking.”