We often hear about the massive medical bills and complex therapies that come with a cancer diagnosis, but a massive new study suggests your daily habits might be just as powerful. I have spent years looking at health data, and the latest research proves that simple lifestyle tweaks can significantly extend your life after a diagnosis.

A newly published study in the journal Cancer analyzed data from 28,550 individuals in the UK Biobank to see how healthy habits impact survival rates. Led by Professor John Mathers of Newcastle University, the research team found that adhering to basic health guidelines directly correlates with a longer life.

Each single-point improvement in following the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommendations lowered the risk of death from any cause by 8 percent. If you manage to hit most of these goals, your overall mortality risk drops by 16 percent.

The Five Simple Habits That Lower Mortality Risk

These are not radical, unproven biohacks that require a trust fund to afford. The five recommendations analyzed by Dr. Fiona Malcomson and the Newcastle team are incredibly straightforward.

• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Staying physically active
• Eating a diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, fruit, and beans
• Limiting red and processed meat
• Limiting alcohol consumption

We love seeing hard data back up common sense, especially when it gives patients back their sense of control. Nadia Ameyah, director of the Netherlands-based charity WKOF, noted that this study provides the first truly robust evidence for survivorship based on these guidelines.

Kick the Bad Habits to Stay Out of the Hospital

Quitting smoking and heavy drinking are the most obvious starting points, but they are also the hardest. Dr. Mikkael A. Sekeres, chief of the division of hematology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, points out that about one-third of lung or head and neck cancer patients continue to smoke after their diagnosis.

That is a dangerous game to play. Dr. Sekeres notes that patients who actually quit smoking saw an almost 30 percent improvement in their survival rates.

Alcohol is another major hurdle, with data from the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program showing that 78 percent of cancer survivors are current drinkers. Continued drinking after a diagnosis leads to higher hospital readmission rates and can double the risk of developing a second cancer in the upper aerodigestive tract.

Exercise and Diet as Complementary Medicine

I often see people assume that cancer treatment means total bed rest, but the data suggests the exact opposite. A massive analysis of 150 studies showed that women with breast cancer who exercised cut their overall mortality risk by 36 percent.

For men with prostate cancer, regular exercise reduced the risk of death by 37 percent. Dr. Sekeres recommends aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week, plus two days of strength training.

Dietary changes also yield massive dividends. In the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), breast cancer survivors who cut their fat intake reduced their recurrence rate by 24 percent.

Meanwhile, colorectal cancer patients who adopted a Mediterranean-style diet slashed their risk of dying by nearly 50 percent. Do not bother with extreme ketogenic diets or fasting, though, as the American Society of Clinical Oncology found insufficient evidence to support those restrictive trends.