"How long you'll live" quizzes?

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Hi, everybody! I am posting this here because I can't find a health chatroom or forum to discuss this issue online. I apologize in advance if this is out of place but you are a trustworthy group and I would LOVE to have opinions.

Have you taken quizzes on the topic of life expectancy or your potential cause of death? If yes, have you ever trusted or relied on the results and/or have they made you think twice about your diet, habits and lifestyle?

I am only 20, so I don't think I have any health problems to worry about. Regardless, it appears as through life expectancy quiz results show that all of my habits are pushing me back many years. But when I visit my doctor, I'm always perfectly healthy. I won't go into detail, but my habits (and lack thereof) are incredibly horrible and yet I am skinny and healthy. Plus my family's history has no major health problems. Anyway, after several attempts at several life-expectancy quizzes, with very similar negative results ("stop doing this altogether to add 20+ years to your life") I think these quizzes are nonsense, ridiculous.

For one, they're very generalized. I don't think they can be accurately, or even broadly, applied to any individual. Another concern of mine is how/where they collect their information, their proof, of why these habits relate to life expectancy. What is your opinion of these types of quizzes or research? Do you think your habits have a major impact of your overall health and/or life expectancy?

For example, an article in TIME magazine suggests theories and ideas to help any person live longer. They recommend taking a quiz at www.livingto100.com.

I took one of those quizzes which concluded I would only live to be 57. So I guess I got ten years left to "play hard".

Hi again, all -- this is clearly not an active forum... Anyhoo, I'm still curious if I can get opinions. Maybe even people could try out the quiz I linked to in my first post and share your opinions about your results. Anything about this topic will help from this community. I am sorry again if this is too out-of-place for WrongPlanet and I'll try elsewhere.

Thanks for the reply, strapshoechris. Do you think the result is an accurate estimation, and why or why not?

Yeah, I took one of these. It mainly relies on you being honest in your answers, and then gives you a result based on an average of stats. It's probably reasonably accurate.

I think I got 70 or roundabout. I'm a bit of a health freak, but I lose out due to stress, depression and lack of decent relationships.

I think you have to ask yourself how long you want to live. I don't see myself wanting to live to 100, if 25 years of those life are spent as an infirm vegetable watching game shows all day, having all my money siphoned away into the pockets of care home owners.

I believe that if you really want to live well up to a hundred, you'd have to have some pretty non mainstream habits. I'd imagine that the lifespan of your average westerner is 65-75, and probably decreasing year by year.

Someone once told me a story about some guys that researched some isolated community in the backwoods of Russia where they all lived healthily and happily to be 100+ years old. They studied them for years, trying to work out what it was that gave them such health and longevity. Turns out the only thing was that they believed they would...

I got 89 years of age. Which seems consistent with the average age of death for females within my family (one grandmother died at 91, my other grandmother is still alive and living independantly at 88 ) I had a great grandmother who was 99.
As for me, I don't really need to exercise for weight loss, but for fitness it's another matter. My weight might make a change for the unhealthy if I have kids, as that happened to my mother after she had me.

I've taken quizzes like you describe, but they give ridiculously high estimates, like 92-93, for me. They certainly haven't made me reconsider my habits. Partly that's because I've spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out what helps people live longer and happier lives, and I've already incorporated what I've found, but partly it's because the additional gains suggested by the quizzes don't seem worthwhile. Floss every single day to add six months? Not worth the trouble.

I think that the research behind quizzes like the one you link to is of uneven quality. Some of the factors they examine probably do relate to longevity, but some are merely correlates that aren't causal factors.

I do, however, think that my habits have a major impact on my health and life expectancy. In fact, I know they have an impact on my health since I went through a major diet change a couple years back that cleared up a number of minor health issues. And there are certainly some habits, such as smoking and excessive drinking, where the evidence is incontrovertible that they are unhealthy.

I would note that the fact that you're healthy at 20 is probably not a good indicator of where you'll be 40 years from now. Almost everyone is healthy at 20.

That quiz result may well be a liberal estimate as I believe I've been on "borrowed time" for about twelve years now. I am a good 80 pounds overweight, have uncontrollable high blood pressure (approx 160/100 average), high cholesterol (approx 235) and refuse to give up any part of my all-junkfood diet or my weekend beer binges. In addition I've been needing to drug myself comatose to get any decent sleep most of the time anymore. The only thing that >might< be keeping me going is my overnite job (the big contributor to my sleep problem) where I end up walking between 2 and 3 miles every shift as well as a lot of heavy lifting which could constitute some form of "work-out". Then again, the stress from the sucky job may be costing me time from whatever I do have left.
Like Moog, I don't want to live to be 100 anyway. Infact I think 80 (which my father will soon turn) is way too old for ME.