Live longer - exercise and quit smoking

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Womens Health has been studying over 40,000 women for 10 years. A surprisingly higher percentage of the oldest group has died than would have been statistically expected.

The biggest killers were heart disease and cancer - with digestive cancers, lung cancer and breast cancer the most prevalent, in that order.

The study did show strong benefits from stopping smoking and doing moderate exercise. Women who smoked and did no exercise had roughly double the risk of death during the study.
Women who did no exercise by choice, were also more likely to die than those who did simply a 30 minute walk every day.

Source:
Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Mar 2005
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/centre/wha/project.html - the official site.