It is a well-established fact that exercise leads to longevity. However, spending money in opulent gyms, fitness classes and paying marathon instructors isn't the only way. You can add days, if not years to your life by doing this one simple thing—climbing the stairs.

A new study, published in The Journal Of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle, found that climbing six to 10 steps every day can extend your life by up to 55 days. The study involving 280,423 participants revealed that climbing stairs at home can significantly reduce the risk of premature death. During the study period, 9,445 deaths were recorded.

Participants who climbed more than five flights of stairs daily experienced a lower risk of early mortality compared to those who did not climb stairs. The optimal benefit was observed among individuals climbing 6–10 flights per day. This reduction in risk translates to an additional 44 to 55 days of survival.

Starting An exercise programme is Daunting, But You Can Do It

Just like any other routine, starting any exercise programme can be daunting. You might see people taking extreme resolutions like completely going off sugar or following a keto diet. However, keeping a healthy lifestyle does not require it. A little alteration in your daily activities is enough. The little things that we do, like parking farther away from the store, taking the stairs, or setting an alarm to stand up and do 10 squats every 20 minutes during the workday, can add up to make a huge difference.

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A 2022 article in Nature Medicine indicated that those few minutes of exercise do make a difference. People who engaged in short bursts of activity of one to two minutes each day lowered their cancer mortality risk by up to 40% and their cancer mortality risk by almost 50%.

How To Create Healthier Habits

You can start by habit stacking, where you add something to a behaviour you already do. This might mean doing 10 pushups after brushing your teeth or doing as many bodyweight squats as you can while you wait for your tea to steep.

It is also important to find someone who will become your ally in making your new habits stick. For example, you can have a running buddy who can periodically check on you and also give you company.

Another tool is replacing an old habit with a new one. When you remove a bad habit, it's very important to fill that void with a replacement or else you can create a vacuum effect that backfires. For instance, if you decide to quit soda, it is important to replace it with something like fruit water or anything or else the void can push you to get back to your older habit.

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If you’re someone who loves walking fast and maybe even got teased for it, here’s some good news. A research team from the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has found a strong link between walking speed and cancer risk. According to their study, people who walk at a faster pace have a significantly lower risk of developing cancer, especially lung cancer.

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with nearly 20 million new cases each year. The American Cancer Society already recommends regular physical activity and strength training to help reduce cancer risk. Walking, being the most accessible form of exercise, has long been at the center of these efforts and now, speed may matter too.

How Walking Fast Can Reduce Cancer Risks

According to Professor Cheung Ching-lung, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at HKUMed, walking speed is a quick and reliable measure of physical function. It has long been linked to age-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, and even overall mortality.

Recent evidence suggests skeletal muscle may help regulate inflammatory and metabolic pathways, which could explain the biological connection between walking speed and cancer risk. To explore this further, researchers at HKUMed examined the relationship using two approaches: self-reported walking pace among participants in the U.K., and a timed six-meter walking test in Hong Kong.

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The results were striking. Fast walkers in the U.K. showed a 13% lower overall risk of cancer, while participants in Hong Kong recorded a 45% decrease. The most dramatic effect was seen in lung cancer, where the risk dropped by as much as 53%. This points to faster walking as a potential way to protect the respiratory system and lower cancer risk.

“Walking speed may be an important marker of physiological resilience linked to cancer risk,” said Professor Cheung. “The lower levels of inflammation and healthier lipid profiles observed among fast walkers support the idea that they are in better overall health. This makes walking speed a simple yet effective tool for assessing health status.”

Brisk Walking Health Benefits

Walking offers a wide range of health benefits, and it is not limited to improving lung function. It also plays a key role in supporting heart health. Contrary to the popular belief that 10,000 steps a day are essential, research shows you can gain significant health benefits with fewer steps. Studies suggest that even 7,000 steps per day can reduce health risks, while as few as 3,867 steps may lower the risk of death. The message is clear: every step counts. Adding even 1,000 more steps than your usual routine is a practical way to begin.

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Other than that, as per Mayo Clinic, Brisk Walking also has other benefits:

Brisk walking supports heart health, uplifts mood, aids weight management, and lowers the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and stroke. It also strengthens bones and muscles, improves balance, boosts energy and immunity, and sharpens memory and focus.

In his new autobiography Heartbeats, Björn Borg strips away the icy façade that once defined him on court. The book, set for U.S. release on 23 September by Diversion Books, begins with a raw account of his 1990s hospitalization after overdosing on “alcohol, drugs, pills, my preferred ways of self-medication.” It ends with a prostate cancer diagnosis, which he now faces in remission.

“It’s good,” the 69-year-old told The Associated Press in a recent video interview from his Stockholm home, “to have a good beginning and a good ending.” The 292-page memoir is a departure from the silence he cultivated during and after his playing days, offering stories of love, regret, excess and survival.

Walking away from tennis at 25

Borg retired shockingly early, at just 25, after losing both the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals in 1981 to his rival John McEnroe. While others saw a glittering career still ahead, Borg knew otherwise.

“My head was spinning,” he said. “And I knew I’m going to step away from tennis.”

That decision, he explains, left him unmoored. He returned briefly to the professional circuit in the early 1990s but never again at Grand Slam level. What followed was a long descent into substance abuse.

On court, Borg was famously known as “Ice-Borg”, a man of composure who never flinched. But he reveals that this restraint was a learned skill, born from shame as a 12-year-old banned by his local club for bad behavior.

Off court, that discipline dissolved. By his own account, panic attacks and depression pushed him into cocaine use starting in 1982. “The first time I tried cocaine,” Borg writes, “I got the same kind of rush I used to get from tennis.”

The rush quickly became reliance. “It really destroys you,” Borg said of drugs. “I was happy to get away from tennis, to get away from that life. But I had no plan what to do. I had no people behind me to guide me in the right direction.”

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Overdoses and shame

Borg details two overdoses that landed him in hospital, one in Holland in the early 1990s, and another in 1989 in Milan, which he insists was an accident rather than a suicide attempt. The darkest moment, he admits, came when he awoke in a hospital bed to see his father looking down at him.

“That was the worst shame of all,” he writes.

These incidents, combined with spiraling personal struggles, forced Borg to confront how far he had fallen from the grace of his early sporting stardom.

Name: drops and surreal encounters

Heartbeats is not a typical sports autobiography. Alongside harrowing stories of addiction and recovery, Borg mixes in extraordinary encounters: a water-skiing shoulder injury before the 1977 U.S. Open, receiving death threats during the 1981 U.S. Open, being robbed at gunpoint after accepting payment in cash, and facing coin-throwing spectators in Rome.

The book name-drops Donald Trump, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner, Andy Warhol, Yasser Arafat, and even “my old friend Hugh Hefner.” These anecdotes place Borg not only in tennis history but within a swirl of 20th-century celebrity and politics.

“People will be very surprised what really happened,” Borg said. “For me to come out after all these years, all I went through, I went through some difficult times, it’s a relief for me to do this book. I feel so much better. No secrets anymore.”

A candid look at survival

The memoir also traces his strained relationships, with parents, with his children, and with his own sense of identity after leaving professional sport. By his account, retirement robbed him of purpose, and drugs filled the void.

Borg acknowledges that his descent was partly a reaction to the structure of his tennis life: “I was happy to get away from tennis … but I had no plan what to do.” Without the rhythm of tournaments and training, he spiraled.

Yet he insists he has rebuilt his life. Now, after cancer treatment, he says he is proud of where he stands: sober, reflective, and still connected to the sport he once dominated.

Looking ahead, without secrets

For Borg, writing Heartbeats is as much about catharsis as it is about record-keeping. He admits that his privacy once shielded him from scrutiny but also kept him trapped in silence about his struggles. Now, at 69, he frames his story differently: beginning with a near-death overdose, ending with cancer remission, and filling the middle with unvarnished honesty.

“I went through some difficult times,” he said, “but now I feel so much better.”

Björn Borg’s memoir offers not just the tale of a tennis great, but a portrait of a man forced to confront addiction, shame, and mortality, and who, at last, seems at peace.

Could daily cocoa extract supplements help fight aging and heart disease? A new study from the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) suggests they might. Researchers from Mass General Brigham found that a key marker for inflammation decreased in people taking a daily cocoa supplement. This finding may help explain how cocoa extract protects the heart.

You may be familiar with cocoa as it is the key ingredient in making one of the most popular sweet treat, chocolate. The debate regarding chocolate and whether it is actually healthy or not is something that has been happening for years. While experts and studies show that dark chocolate can be considered a heart healthy food, the sugar content in it is counterproductive as well.

So, could its supplements be the real answer? The researchers looked into how cocoa extract supplements could help our heart as well as slow down biological aging.

Can Chocolate Lower Risk of Heart Diseases?

In the new study, researchers looked at blood samples from nearly 600 participants in the COSMOS trial. They wanted to see if the cocoa supplement changed five specific markers of inflammation.

They found that one key marker, called hsCRP, dropped significantly in people who took the cocoa supplement. This marker is important because high levels are linked to a higher risk of heart disease. The levels of hsCRP went down by 8.4% each year compared to people who took a placebo (a fake pill).

This finding helps explain an earlier result from the same trial. In 2022 trial done by COSMOS, the researchers found that cocoa extract supplements reduced deaths from cardiovascular disease by an impressive 27%. The researchers believe that by lowering inflammation, the cocoa extract helped protect the participants' hearts.

How Can You Improve Heart Health With Cocoa?

While these results are very promising, the researchers stressed that taking a cocoa supplement is not a magic bullet and can't replace a healthy lifestyle. They also noted some interesting side effects, like a small increase in another immune-related marker, which they plan to study more closely in the future.

The findings highlight the importance of eating a diet rich in plant-based foods, especially those with flavanols. The research team hopes this study encourages people to focus on a "diverse, colorful, plant-based diet" to support their heart health as they age.

Other Health Benefits of Chocolate

Dark chocolate may be good for your heart. Studies suggest that eating it could lower your risk of high blood pressure and may help prevent blood clots. It's also been linked to a reduced risk of other heart-related problems like heart failure, stroke, and high cholesterol. These benefits come from special plant compounds in chocolate called flavanols, which help improve blood flow and reduce inflammation.

While many people hope chocolate is a miracle food, the evidence is still mixed. A review of several studies found that chocolate only had a clear positive effect on triglycerides, a type of fat in your blood. For other health areas like skin health, blood sugar, and mental function, the studies didn't find a significant difference between people who ate chocolate and those who didn't. These studies were generally short, so more research is needed.

Chocolate has been enjoyed for centuries and is rich in healthy compounds. However, the most promising health benefits appear to be for heart health, particularly when consuming moderate amounts of dark chocolate that is rich in flavanols. For other health benefits, we need more long-term studies to know for sure.