America’s first responders put their lives on the line to protect their communities — and it shaves approximately 10 years off their life expectancy.Despite the inevitable risk, practicing healthy lifestyle habits can help to protect longevity, experts say.Mike Morlan, firefighter and district vice president at CAL FIRE 2881, spoke to Fox News Digital about prioritizing health in the line of duty.TWO KEY HEART HEALTH METRICS COULD DETERMINE HOW LONG YOU'LL LIVE"For me, it's personal," said the Sacramento firefighter of nearly 30 years. "I lost both my parents to cancer … and I learned early in my career that heart disease and cancer are what take firefighters out."We don’t necessarily usually die in a fire. We die years later from what the job does to us."Morlan said that "shift after shift," firefighters are exposed to smoke, toxins, carcinogens and extreme heat, leading to sleep disruptions and medical conditions."I've stood at memorials for people who have never made it to retirement," he said. "Even for some of our members and firefighters who do retire — a year or two after that, that's when they pass away. That really stays with you."MISSING SLEEP MAY TAKE A HIDDEN TOLL ON YOUR BRAIN AND LONGEVITY, RESEARCH REVEALSDr. Eve Henry, chief medical officer at Hundred Health in California, said the fact that firefighters tend to die 10 years sooner than the general American population should be a "wake-up call" for those in the medical community."That’s not a marginal difference — it’s a decade of life lost," she told Fox News Digital.AGING PROCESS COULD ACCELERATE DUE TO 'FOREVER CHEMICALS' EXPOSURE, STUDY FINDS"When you combine repeated exposure to toxic chemicals and carcinogens with the extreme physical and physiological stress of the job, it creates a perfect storm for chronic disease to accelerate much faster than it would in a typical office environment," Henry said.Acknowledging the risk is the first step to living longer, Morlan said."When we run into burning buildings, it's really the invisible exposures over decades that threaten our lives," he said. "Being strong doesn't cancel out toxic exposures or sleep deprivation."The firefighter also recommends treating the body like "mission-critical equipment.""We inspect our rigs, and we inspect our equipment all the time. We're always checking those boxes and making sure we’re ready to go," he said. "And it shouldn't be any different [with] our health."In addition to getting annual physicals, first responders may want to seek out… [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 days ago
