India, April 25 -- A new study, published in the Annals of Medicine, examined how unhealthy choices such as smoking, heavy drinking, and not exercising impact both mental and physical health over time.
The research team from Finland used information from a long-term study that followed people born in the Finnish city of Jyvaskyla in 1959. These individuals were checked for their mental and physical health at ages 27, 36, 42, 50, and 61.
Mental health was measured through surveys about depression and emotional well-being. Physical health was checked using things like blood pressure, waist size, and blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
The researchers found that the longer people continued with unhealthy habits, the more their mental and ph...