Intro

This is a paper that is cited by over 2500 researchers detailing the preventable causes of mortality. The paper is titled “The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors” by Danaei et al. You can look up the paper if you are interested, it is freely available and can be downloaded at your leisure. I will summarize the interventions an individual can do below:

• Do not Smoke: We have to educate young adults and teenagers to never start smoking as nicotine is highly addictive and acts on dopaminergic circuits to make one highly dependent on the substance.
• Maintain a healthy body composition. Actually BMI is an overrated measurement and may not be accurate for certain individuals. BMI is simply weight/(height in meters)^2. Body fat composition is a more accurate measurement that shows if one is healthy or not. This can be measured by skin fold calipers or simple devices you can buy on Amazon. I want to be inclusive when I state this argument, because I firmly believe that obesity is not conducive to long term health. While body dysmorphia is a known psychological issue, it is important to advise individuals to stay at a healthy weight and composition in order to maximize their long term health. Individuals can choose to implement resistance training, aerobic exercise, and diet modification to ensure they maintain this healthy body composition. Essentially, our muscles, heart, lungs, vessels, and legs are our key body parts that will let us absorb nutrients effectively, do exercise and get physical activity, and tolerate physical stress. I can ramble on for days about this topic, but I will elaborate further in another post if desired.
• Eat a healthy diet. Our diet is most of where our nutrients and minerals come from. Essentially, there is macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are our primary energy sources and building materials for our tissues in our body. These are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Animal sources of protein have a more complete amino acid profile, however mixing different vegetarian sources of protein can accomplish the same goal. There are some fats that are better than others. Saturated and trans-saturated fats are harmful, and are more frequent in processed foods and fast food. Poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats are healthy and essential. They are more frequent in olive oil, avocado oil, and fish. Complex carbohydrates, ones that are not processed, available in their natural forms are more healthy. These are found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lentils. Sugars found in candy, soda, and high fructose corn syrup are more unhealthy. This is when our body senses that we have adequate glycogen stores, any surplus of carbohydrates is converted into fat stores in adipose tissues or fat around the liver. Also, when we are frequently intaking sugar, our body develops insulin resistance, that makes our body’s regulation of sugar levels more difficult leading to diabetes. It is better to cook meals at home that are nutritious than getting food from restaurants as they tend to use cheaper ingredients and typically has more sodium. Remember restaurants cater to your tastes and not your health, so food will generally be saltier, fattier, and sweeter than is good for you.
• Reduce alcohol intake. This one is simple, most of the previous literature that stated moderate alcohol use was inaccurate and proven to be false. Alcohol intake vs health risks operates on a J shaped curve, where above 1-2 drinks per day, every additional drink results in exponential increase of long term consequences. If you can avoid alcohol entirely, I highly advise to do it. Your cognition will be sharper, your metabolism will be faster, and your organs will thank you everyday. Wine was thought to have a miniscule effect in longetivity, but the active ingredient reservatrol responsible for anti oxidant effect is found in grape skins. A better solution is just to drink pomegrenate juice or eat other sources of anti oxidants. You can even drink grape juice.
• Prevent physical injury. This is harder for youngsters and easier later on until old age. Younger people are more likely to do risky activities such as driving under influence, getting into physical combat, and operating heavy machinery. Follow advice on how to minimize physical injury, and try to stay away from risky activities. Also, psychological stress in developing adults can cause many conditions that result in unfortunate consequences such as suicide and homicide. It is important for young adults to have a support system and develop behavioral techniques to regulate their thoughts and emotions. We all need to do a better job on being kinder to each other and checking in on our friends and neighbors.
• Prevent environmental exposure to toxins. This is harder to do, but like we did in the mid 20th century, there are chemicals out there that negatively impact our health like lead used to, or PFC’s did to the atmosphere, or pesticides that are outlawed today. There are thousands of chemicals that the EPA does not regulate, that are released by corporations and bad actors that negatively impact our health. One example is microplastics. Research has to be done on its long term consequences in individuals. It has already been determined that they are endocrine disruptors, and can accumulate in organs such as the testes and blood vessels.