Here’s good news for those of us whose health habits aren’t perfect. Just one bad habit isn’t likely to send you to an early grave.

It’s the combination that’ll get you.

Do you sit for more than seven hours a day? You’ve surely heard by now that it’s “the new smoking.” There’s no question that you’ll be healthier if you get up and move about every hour.

But if you don’t smoke—and you also eat a healthy diet, get regular exercise and sleep well—the risks of prolonged sitting are a lot less than you might imagine.

Some bad habit combos, on the other hand, are downright deadly.

WHEN YOU HAVE ONLY ONE BAD HABIT

Australian researchers started with a database of 231,000 middle-aged and older adults who had filled out questionnaires about their lifestyle habits. The researchers measured associations between risky lifestyle behaviors and mortality amongst the 15,000 subjects who died over a six-year period. Only about one-third of them lived squeaky-clean lives without any of the examined risk factors.

Some behaviors were relatively benign if the rest of the lifestyle was healthy. Participants who…

• Ate a poor diet (too few vegetables and fruit, little fish, lots of processed meats and fatty dairy foods) were 4% more likely to die over the six years than people with really healthy diets.

• Drank more than 14 alcoholic beverages a week…8% increased risk.

• Slept less than seven hours a night…9%.

• Sat for more than seven hours a day…15%.

Some behaviors were pretty risky even if the rest of the lifestyle was healthy. Those who…

• Slept for more than nine hours a night…44% increased risk for death. (Long sleep duration often is an indicator of underlying health problems such as depression or diabetes.)

• Got less than 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense physical activity a week…61%.

• Smoked…90%.

BAD COMPANY

When bad behaviors get together, you really have to worry…

• Exercising too little plus drinking more than recommended…80% increased risk for death.

• Exercising too little plus sitting too much…242%. (This was the most common pairing of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors in the entire study.)

• Exercising too little plus drinking more than recommended and sitting for more than seven hours a day…251%.

• Sitting too much, exercising too little and sleeping less than seven hours…259%.

• Smoking and drinking more than is recommended…280%.

• Sitting too much, exercising too little and sleeping more than nine hours…423%.

• Smoking, drinking too much and getting too little sleep…468%.

• Smoking, eating a bad diet, drinking more than recommended, exercising too little and sitting for prolonged periods…640%.

• Smoking, drinking more than is recommended, getting too little exercise, sitting for prolonged periods and sleeping more than nine hours a night…909%. (Yes, that means you are more than nine times more likely to die over the next six years.)

HOW TO STAY HEALTHY EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT PERFECT

Like any study, this one has limitations. It shows associations, not causality. Plus, one could quibble with some of the underlying lifestyle scoring. When it comes to diet, for example, the score counted dairy fat as “bad,” but new research finds that dairy fat can be part of a healthy diet. Nor should the fact that certain behaviors aren’t particularly deadly be interpreted as an excuse to skip any particular healthy behavior.

In the end, we’re all individuals. One person may be OK drinking more than two drinks a night, on average, for example, while another might have, say, an underlying liver problem or an alcohol addiction that turns that behavior into an individually deadly habit.

The key point is that bad habits don’t just add risk—they multiply risk.

Fortunately, all of the risks measured in this study are modifiable—so you’re in control. For example, if you sit all day long (as so many of us do), it’s healthy to get up every hour or so and walk around—but that’s even more important if you aren’t getting enough regular exercise. Even better, get up from your chair and get exercise—see Bottom Line’s Sitting Too Long? 7 Really Quick Fitness Breaks.

Related Articles