August 1, 2001
		Clean Living Adds Years to Life Span Researchers have found that those of the Seventh-Day Adventist faith have a longer-than-average life expectancy, largely ascribed to church members' regular exercise, almost nonexistent smoking habits and high rates of vegetarianism. In a study conducted by researchers at Loma Linda University, it was found when comparing California Adventists with Californians who were not members of the religion that male Adventists had a life-expectancy of more than seven years over other men, and women of the faith had a life expectancy nearly 4.5 years longer than non-Adventist women. Lead researcher Dr. Gary E. Fraser said, "The number of years is quite striking," adding that Adventists have "always focused on health as a virtue." For their research, Fraser and his colleague, David J. Shavlik, used data from a 12-year study of health and lifestyle habits among more than 34,000 Seventh-Day Adventists aged 30 or older. The researchers compared the mortality rate of Adventists with those of caucasian individuals in the general California population, calculating life expectancies in the two groups. Vegetarian men were expected to live to 83, and women to 86. Additionally, 40% of the Adventist group exercised vigorously for at least 15 minutes three times a week, and less than 1% smoked. "These results strongly suggest that behavioral choices influence the expected age of death by several years, even as much as a decade," the researchers wrote. According to Fraser and Shavlik, if these findings are confirmed in other studies, the "implications for public health are profound." Additionally, being able to point to specific benefits of healthful living is useful information to use in health education. "As far as I know," Dr. Fraser said, "there's never been a quantification of the number of years one can expect to be added."