If you want to improve your odds of living to 85, make sure you watch out for these nine risk factors, especially when you reach middle age:

• Being overweight, defined as a body-mass index of 25 or more
• High blood glucose levels
• High triglyceride levels
• High blood pressure
• Low grip strength – unable to squeeze at least 86 pounds of pressure with a handheld device
• Smoking
• More than three alcoholic drinks a day
• No high school degree
• Being unmarried (sorry singles)

The factors were listed by the AP/Daily-Herald (Illinois) and were pulled from a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study followed 5,820 men on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for up to 40 years.

NetSweat.com Comments: Not surprisingly, following a healthy lifestyle, practicing moderation and eating lots of fruits and vegetables increases a person’s lifestyle. There isn’t much new from this study, but it is noteworthy because of the length of time and the size of the study group.