A new book by leading cancer expert Dr David Agus has shone a light on some of the practices that can help you live longer.
If anyone should know, he would - Dr Agus has also pioneering biomedical research and had patients that included Steve Jobs, Johnny Ramone, Neil Young and Ted Kennedy.
Although he has done immense work in the field of cancer, his belief is that a lot of the key work can be done with prevention. Now he has come out with a new book - A Short Guide To A Long Life - that sums up his wisdom around what can help us to live longer.
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He says that it is essential to look at yourself naked from time to time, reported The Daily Mail.
"Take a good look at yourself naked in front of a mirror — front and back. This will help you spot trouble on the horizon in the form of body oddities you didn’t have before and signs of skin cancer.
"And once in a while, take a visual inventory of every square inch of yourself, including your hair, nails and the inside of your mouth."
Other tips also include refusing to go through an airport scanner on the basis that we don't yet know what the side effects are, and avoiding high heels as they cause inflammation in the feet. He says: "Inflammation has been linked to some of our most troubling degenerative diseases, including heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer, auto-immune diseases, diabetes and accelerated ageing."
In terms of dietary suggestions, he suggests starting your day with a tea or coffee because he believes caffeine in moderation may have anti-cancer benefits, as well as eating at regular times as moving your schedule around puts stress on the body.
Other common sense tips include washing your hands regularly, getting flu shots and making sure you move around. A sedentary lifestyle is a killer, he believes.
Having children means you will live longer than your childless counterparts because they keep us mentally alert (that's an understatement), while having the odd glass of wine also has benefits.
We found his statement around vitamins to echo what has been reported in recent news: "Many studies on groups of more than a thousand people in the past few decades have shown that taking vitamin supplements is correlated with an increased risk of serious diseases such as cancer, and it produces little benefit to health.
"The body likes to create free radicals to attack ‘bad’ cells, including cancerous ones. If you block this by taking copious amounts of vitamins, especially those touted as antioxidants, you block your body’s natural ability to control itself."