What are the health essentials for a long life?
Longetic is a health record app, not a coach, so the list here is the one the evidence bodies publish: move most days, lift twice a week, sit less, sleep seven hours or more, put plants on most of the plate, go easy on salt and sugar, avoid tobacco, drink less or none, keep people close, keep a current list of what you take, and know your check-up dates.
Nine of those eleven are behaviours with a published number behind them, and the numbers come from the World Health Organization, from sleep medicine consensus, and from national health services. The last two are not behaviours at all. They are records, and they are the two that fall out of almost every framework built to score how you live.
That is the argument of this article, and it is worth stating before the list rather than after it. You can do the nine perfectly and still arrive at an appointment unable to say what you take or when you were last checked.
Which eleven, and what does each one rest on?
Nine of the eleven come from WHO guidance and from sleep medicine consensus, each with a published figure attached. The last two, a current medication list and your own check-up dates, come from how health services actually work rather than from a trial, which is exactly why the large cardiovascular frameworks have no entry for either.
The order below is the order of the list, not a ranking. Every figure is quoted from the body that published it, and where two bodies publish different figures for the same thing, both are given with their names attached rather than averaged into one.
1. Move most days
The WHO 2020 guidelines set the weekly floor and the ceiling in one sentence: all adults should undertake 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, "or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week". The WHO fact sheet carries the floor on its own, "at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week", and England publishes the same number, "do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week". The guidelines also make the starting point explicit: "Some physical activity is better than none. If not currently meeting these recommendations, doing some physical activity will bring benefits to health."
2. Lift something twice a week
The WHO 2020 guidelines are specific about frequency and coverage: "Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities at moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week." The NHS says the same and names the groups, "do strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on at least 2 days a week". Neither names a weight, a number of sets, or a rep range, and neither does this article; the subject in full, with what the evidence says about load, sets and age, is in how to build muscle and strength at any age.
3. Sit less, and break it up
This is a separate instruction from the one above, not the same one restated. WHO defines the thing being limited: "Sedentary behaviour is any period of low-energy expenditure while awake such as sitting, reclining or lying." The recommendation is that "all age groups should limit the amount of time being sedentary". The NHS turns it into something you can do in an afternoon: "reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity".
4. Seven hours of sleep or more
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society state it in a single line: "Adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health." Their consensus panel also set the floor from the other direction, finding that "sleeping six or fewer hours per night is inadequate to sustain health and safety in adults". How to get there is a longer subject, and we have written ten sleep habits with a source under each one separately.
5. Plants on most of the plate
WHO gives one number here, and it comes with an age qualifier that is worth reproducing: "Everyone older than 10 years of age should aim for at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables per day." That is the whole of the recommendation as published, and it says nothing about which fruits, which vegetables, or in what proportion.
6. Go easy on salt and sugar
Three ceilings, all from the same WHO fact sheet. On sugar: "The consumption of free sugars should be limited to less than 10% of total daily energy intake." On salt: "In adults, salt intake should be limited to less than 5 grams per day (2 grams per day sodium)." On fat: "For adults, limiting the amount of total fat in the diet to 30% or less of total daily energy intake may help to prevent unhealthy weight gain." Note the hedge in the third one. It is in the source, and it stays here.
7. No tobacco, in any form
The WHO fact sheet, updated in June 2026 and now titled for nicotine as well as tobacco, leaves no room for a safer version: "All forms of tobacco use are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure." It puts the same line around second-hand smoke, "There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke", and quantifies the toll: "Tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year, including over 1.6 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke."
8. Less alcohol, or none
WHO is unambiguous: "There is no form of alcohol consumption that is risk-free. Even low levels of alcohol consumption carry some risks and can cause harm." It also puts a number on the global toll, "Worldwide, around 2.6 million deaths were caused by alcohol consumption in 2019". The United Kingdom publishes something different in kind, a weekly ceiling rather than a statement about risk: "men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis", and if you do drink that much, "spread your drinking over 3 or more days". That is UK guidance from the Chief Medical Officers, and it is not a figure that applies anywhere else by default.
9. Keep people close
This is the newest entry on the list and the one most people would not expect to see beside salt and sleep. WHO reported in June 2025 that "1 in 6 people worldwide is affected by loneliness", and put the mortality figure at "more than 871 000 deaths annually". It is also unevenly distributed: "About 24% of people in low-income countries reported feeling lonely", which WHO puts at "twice the rate in high-income countries (about 11%)".
10. A current list of what you take
Here the list stops being about behaviour. Health services do review your medicines, and in England that review has a name and a definition: NHS England describes a structured medication review as "an evidence-based and comprehensive review of a patient's medication". What the review needs is an accurate list on the day, and between reviews nobody assembles that for you across a GP, a hospital clinic, a private consultation and a pharmacy in another country. That is a subject of its own, covered in why one medication list breaks when several people prescribe.
11. Your check-up dates
The second record is shorter and even easier to lose: what you were checked for, and when. Health systems invite you to some of it on a schedule, and the next section sets out what those schedules actually are in England and in Spain. The part no system tracks is everything outside its own programme, which includes every test you paid for yourself.
| Essential | Scored by the AHA framework | Source for the figure |
|---|---|---|
| Move most days | Yes, as physical activity | WHO 2020 guidelines |
| Lift twice a week | Not scored separately | WHO 2020 guidelines; NHS |
| Sit less | No | WHO fact sheet; NHS |
| Seven hours of sleep | Yes, as sleep health | AASM and SRS consensus |
| Plants on the plate | Yes, as diet | WHO healthy diet |
| Less salt and sugar | Part of diet | WHO healthy diet |
| No tobacco | Yes, as nicotine exposure | WHO tobacco fact sheet |
| Less alcohol | No | WHO; UK Chief Medical Officers |
| Keep people close | No | WHO, June 2025 |
| A current medication list | No | NHS England |
| Your check-up dates | No | NHS; Ministerio de Sanidad |
What does the American Heart Association framework leave out?
Four of its eight metrics are not habits at all, they are numbers somebody measures for you: blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose and body mass index. And the framework has no entry for alcohol, for social connection, for a medication list, or for the dates of your own checks. It was built to score cardiovascular health, not to be a list of everything that matters.
The framework is worth knowing by name because it is the one the engines and the clinics both reach for. In its public form the American Heart Association lists eight: Eat Better, Be More Active, Quit Tobacco, Get Healthy Sleep, Manage Weight, Control Cholesterol, Manage Blood Sugar, and Manage Blood Pressure. In the 2022 presidential advisory that defined it, the same eight are named Diet, Physical activity, Nicotine exposure, Sleep health, Body mass index, Blood lipids, Blood glucose, and Blood pressure. Sleep was the late addition: "The writing group elected to add sleep duration as an eighth metric to the formal definition of CVH."
The split between the two halves is the useful part. Four of the eight are things you do. Four are things that get measured, and you only know where you stand on them if you have the results and the dates. That is the gap the last two items on our eleven are there to close, and no framework closes it for you.
Who invites you to a check-up in England and in Spain?
In England the NHS Health Check is offered to people aged 40 to 74 and repeated every five years. In Spain there is no single equivalent published as one programme, but there are three national cancer screening programmes, for breast, colorectal and cervix, delivered by each comunidad autónoma. Neither country invites you on the strength of a test you bought yourself.
England first. The NHS describes it as "a free check-up of the health of your heart and blood vessels", available to "people who are aged 40 to 74 who do not have any of the following pre-existing conditions", and says "you should be invited to an NHS Health Check by your GP or local council every 5 years". What it covers includes "measuring your height and weight", "measuring your waist", "a blood pressure test" and "a cholesterol test, and possibly a blood sugar level test". One honest note about that page: it carries a review date of 14 August 2023 and states a next review due in August 2026, so it is at or past its own review point as this is written. This is England; Scotland and Wales run their own services and their arrangements differ.
Spain next. The Ministry of Health publishes three population screening programmes, for "cáncer de mama", "cáncer colorrectal" and "cáncer de cérvix". We could not find a Spanish equivalent of the NHS Health Check published as a single national programme, and this article does not claim there is one. What the Ministry does publish on lifestyle is a 2015 framework for primary care, the Consejo Integral en Estilo de Vida en Atención Primaria, whose aim is "integrar de manera sistemática en la práctica de los profesionales de atención primaria la valoración e intervención sobre el estilo de vida". It was approved by the Consejo Interterritorial on 14 January 2015, which makes it eleven years old.
The ages matter and they have moved recently. For breast cancer, the Ministry announced on 20 May 2026 that it "amplía la población objetivo para incluir a mujeres de entre 45 y 74 años", with "periodicidad bienal para todo el nuevo rango de edad". For colorectal cancer the published target is "población de 50 a 69 años mediante pruebas de sangre oculta en heces cada dos años". For cervix, the consensus document approved on 18 January 2024 sets cytology every three years for ages 25 to 29 and high-risk HPV testing every five years from 30 to 65. One more caveat, and it is structural: Spanish health competencies are devolved, with the system described as having "amplia descentralización, que culminó definitivamente en el año 2002", so delivery is your comunidad autónoma, not Madrid.
| Question | England (NHS) | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| A general cardiovascular check | NHS Health Check | Not found as one programme |
| Ages for that check | 40 to 74 | Not applicable |
| How often | Every 5 years | Set per programme |
| Who sends the invitation | GP or local council | Your comunidad autónoma |
| Breast cancer screening | Not covered in this article | 45 to 74, every 2 years |
| Colorectal cancer screening | Not covered in this article | 50 to 69, every 2 years |
| Cervical cancer screening | Not covered in this article | 25 to 65 |
| Who keeps the dates | You | You |
Where do the sources disagree?
On sleep hours and on alcohol, and in both cases the disagreement is between bodies that are each worth listening to. There is also a disagreement inside the American Heart Association, and another inside the Spanish Ministry of Health, where a newer decision has moved an age range the older document still carries.
Sleep is the clearest. The American Heart Association public page says "Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep each night". Its own 2022 advisory, describing the same metric, notes that several organisations recognise the population health value of roughly 7 to 8 hours of habitual sleep for adults. Sleep medicine sets a floor rather than a band, at seven or more. None of the three is wrong and none of them is the others, so this article names which body said which number every time it uses one.
Alcohol is a disagreement about the kind of answer, not about the evidence. WHO says no form of consumption is risk-free. The United Kingdom publishes a weekly ceiling of 14 units. Both can be true at once: a ceiling is a harm-reduction figure, not a statement that everything below it is safe, and the NHS page is explicit that it is about keeping "health risks from alcohol to a low level".
Spain is a different kind of disagreement, the kind caused by a document not yet catching up with a decision. The Ministry statistical monograph still describes breast screening for "mujeres de 50 a 69 años", while the Ministry press release of 20 May 2026 announces 45 to 74. The same monograph sets cervical cytology for 25 to 34, while the consensus document approved in January 2024 sets it for 25 to 29. Where they conflict, this article uses the later source and says so.
| Item | One source | The other |
|---|---|---|
| Hours of sleep | AHA public page: 7 to 9 | AASM consensus: 7 or more |
| Hours of sleep, same body | AHA 2022 advisory: about 7 to 8 | AHA public page: 7 to 9 |
| Alcohol | WHO: no risk-free level | UK: up to 14 units a week |
| Breast screening in Spain | ESdE monograph: 50 to 69 | May 2026 decision: 45 to 74 |
| Cervical screening in Spain | ESdE monograph: cytology 25 to 34 | Jan 2024 consensus: cytology 25 to 29 |
What are the two most people skip?
A current list of what you take, and the dates of your last checks. Neither is a habit you perform, both are records you keep, and nobody keeps them for you across clinics, countries and years. That is why they fall out of every framework built to score behaviour, and why they are the two that go missing at exactly the wrong moment.
The medication list is the one with a visible failure mode. A structured medication review in England works from what is in front of the clinician on the day, and the day is where the gaps show up: the supplement nobody wrote down, the course finished two months ago, the thing a private consultant started. The list is yours to maintain between reviews, and it is worth maintaining with the dose and the date beside each line.
The check-up dates are the one with no failure mode at all until you move, change doctor, or go abroad, at which point the whole history has to be reconstructed from memory. Both national systems above invite you to their own programmes and track their own invitations; neither tracks the private test you took in another country. If you want the content of those checks rather than their timing, what a standard annual physical includes where you live is a separate piece. As a disclosure, Longetic is our product, so weigh this accordingly: it is where the records on both sides of that go, lab reports from any laboratory, doctor visits and the medicines you take.
