6 Pillars of Health

Eat the appropriate amount of food.

Maintain a healthy level of body fat.

Excess bodyfat increases your risk of death as follows:

25-30% -  Overweight, BMI: 25-29.9,

60-70% - Class 1 obesity, BMI: 30-34.9

85-100% - Class 2 obesity, BMI: 35-39.9

Obesity increases the risk of cancer and diabetes.

Obesity increases risk of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by 350%! 

Eat enough protein for body composition goals.

Consume sufficient fiber/fruits/vegetables.

Calculate your BMI 

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/calculate-your-bmi

Resistance training

• Decreases the risk of death.

• Decreases risk of cardiovascular disease.

• Decreases risk of many cancers. 

• Improves cognition. 

• Improves depressive symptoms. 

• Improves quality of life. 

Cardiovascular exercise

Smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and death.
Tobacco smoking drastically increases risk of many cancers, especially lung cancer by almost 900%! 

• Laryngeal – ~700%

• Pharyngeal ~680%

• Upper GI ~350%

• Oral ~340%

Alcohol – high intake increases cardiovascular disease and cancer risk.

Hard Drugs:

• Opioids – ~200% increase risk of death from any cause.

• Cocaine increases risk of death by 80-90% and is estimated to reduce life expectancy by ~10 years for regular users. 30

• Methamphetamine increases risk of death by almost 700%.

Non physical consequences of substance use:

• Quality of life declines

• Much greater risk of being a victim of sexual assault or violent crimes

• Psychological stress can increases risk of death by up to almost 200%.

• Increases risk of cardiovascular disease by 28% (high stress vs. low stress).

• Stressful life events lead to poorer cancer survival rates.

• Stress is associated with autoimmune disorders.

• Too little but also too much sleep is associated with increased risk of death. 

• 7 hours per night appears to be lowest risk of death with risk increasing by 6% per hour decreased sleep, and increasing by 13% per hour excess sleep