Four healthy choices can change your life

If people would just do four things -- engage in regular physical activity, eat a healthy diet, not smoke and avoid becoming obese -- they could slash their risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke or cancer by 80%. But less than 10% of the 23,153 people in the multiyear study --published in Archives of Internal Medicine -- actually lived their lives this way.

About 9% of participants practiced all four healthy lifestyle choices.

Four percent practiced none.

Roughly 35% followed two of the healthy practices.

Researchers reviewed participants' medical records eight years later, on average, looking for diabetes, heart attacks, strokes or cancer. People who followed all four healthy practices were at far lower risk compared with people who followed none: 93% lower risk for diabetes, 81% for a heart attack, 50% for a stroke and 36% for cancer.

For people who had never smoked and who maintained a BMI under 30, the risk of chronic disease was reduced 72% -- the most dramatic reduction of any dual combination of healthy factors.