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Here’s what you need to do to live to 90, according to science

Exercise is crucial for men (Getty)
Exercise is crucial for men (Getty)

What’s the secret of living to 90 years old? It turns out it’s rather different for men and women – according to analysis of data from hundreds of thousands of Dutch people.

For men, doing lots of exercise is important: for women, simply being taller and having put on less weight seemed to be a factor, according to research published in the BMJ.

Researchers analysed data from the Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS), which included more than 120,000 men and women aged between 55 and 69 when it began in 1986.

Some 7807 participants provided information on their lives at age 20, and were then tracked until either death or age 90, whichever came first.

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Women are overall more likely to reach 90: with 16.7% of men compared to 34.4% of women surviving to see 90 years old.

The researcher found that physique was important in women, with women who lived to 90
n average taller.

Women who lived to 90 had also weighed less at the start of the study, and had put on less weight since the age of 20 than those who were shorter and heavier.

For men, exercise seems to be more important: men who clocked up over 90 minutes a day were 39 per cent more likely to reach 90 than those who did less than 30 minutes.

And every extra 30 minutes of daily physical activity they racked up was associated with a 5 per cent increase in their chances of turning 90.

For women, around 60 minutes per day of exercise was enough – and more did not make a difference.

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