Congratulations gentlemen, all your efforts of living a healthier lifestyle are starting to pay off. According to a report from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the life expectancy for U.S. males grew by 4.6 years.

This increase has narrowed the gender gap from seven years back in 1989 down to five years, one month and six days. This means that today’s men will live to be an average age of 76.2, while a woman’s average lifespan (which rose by 2.7 years) will be 81.3.

Dr. Ali Mokdad, professor of global health at the IHME, part of the University of Washington, told MSNBC one of the reasons they may be catching up is because when it comes to cardiovascular disease, “men are tending to be more vigilant than women.”

When it comes to cardiovascular disease, it is the number one killer for women. It is often unrecognized and untreated in women, according to the American Heart Association. Mokdad told MSNBC, “In this country, we haven’t done a good  job of raising awareness for women about the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.”
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We’re always attuned to what’s going on in the celebrity realm, especially when it’s relating to diet and fitness. It’s kind of our thing, after all.

In a recent interview with health contributors Joy Bauer and Jill Martin, The Today Show gave the insider scoop on the diet and fitness habits of some of Hollywood’s most beautiful stars, including Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Hudson and Scarlett Johansson.

The first star to make the list? Songstress and actress Jennifer Hudson, who’s maintained an 80-pound weight loss that took her from a size 16 to a size 6. We must admit, she looks stunning!

Hudson has been a spokesperson for Weight Watchers for quite some time now and sings the praises of the diet company’s approach to health. When it comes to fitness, Hudson’s trainer says while she’s not much of a gym buff she enjoy working out. During a typical session, Hudson will perform moves like squats, sit-ups and even jump rope, which Martin says is one of the most underrated exercise out there.
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For 24-year-old Mike Crooks, health is his job.

As a nurse working in Florida, he’s always telling people to be more healthy. But up until recently, he wasn’t taking his own advice. Weighing in at more than 300 pounds, Mike said he felt like a walking hypocrite, and that being overweight made him feel awful.

At his heaviest, Mike weighed 337 pounds. But at his current weight of 204, he’s undergone an incredible transformation and lost more than 130 pounds – the majority of which took place in a brief six-month time period later on in his weight loss journey.

Mike had been overweight most of his life, and knew that genetically he hadn’t hit the jackpot as diabetes ran on both sides of his family. His earliest memories of being overweight started around age 10. “I always struggled with my weight,” he said. “I felt like the self-loathing kid, and I remember being very uncomfortable socially. I was extremely introverted and wasn’t into the social scene at all.”
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“We’ve seen research on every age group, from children to men and women in their 90s, and it’s clear that you can get stronger at any age,” says Lou Schuler, co-author of the new book The New Rules of Lifting for Life.

This intriguing new book draws out long known truths about muscle strength and longevity. Simply put, the book explains how the strongest people live longer. Additionally the book explains smart and healthy ways for anyone to get in the weight room and get an effective workout.

The authors call-out some common problems seen by many who frequent the gym. For instance, they dispel the myth that women don’t need to lift heavy weights.

“Middle-aged and older women think their bones will shatter if they pick up a weight that’s heavier than their purse. There’s nothing stranger than seeing a woman do a bench press or bent-over row with a dumbbell that’s smaller than her forearm,” Schuler says.

Schuler explains how another common error to be found in the weight room is that of overweight individuals.
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More and more research is coming forward in support of sleep for good health.

The latest research published in in the journal SLEEP shows that sleeping at least nine hours per night can have more control over your weight than genetics. Getting plenty of sleep gives you an edge if your genetics position you with a tendency to be overweight.

For this particular study, 1,088 sets of twins, both fraternal and identical, had their sleep habits examined along with their body weight. The conclusion of the study was that those who get plenty of sleep actually have more control over their weight through their behavior. Those in the study who slept less than seven hours each night showed a 70% difference in their body mass index (BMI) due to their genes, while things like diet and exercise were responsible for only 4%.

In contrast to that group, those who slept nine or more hours per night had a 51% difference in their BMI due to diet and exercise with only 32% of the difference coming from genes.
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