EXERCISE, EAT WELL & GO TO CHURCH

Want to live longer? A new study finds you need to add church attendance to your regimen:

There are many things you can do to increase your life expectancy: exercise, eat well, take your medication ... and go to church.

A new study finds people who attend religious services weekly live longer. Specifically, the research looked at how many years are added to life expectancy based on:

Regular physical exercise: 3.0 to 5.1 years

Proven therapeutic regimens: 2.1 to 3.7 years

Regular religious attendance: 1.8 to 3.1 years...

In a telephone interview, Hall speculated that the social aspect of religion could play a role in the results.

"There is something about being knit into the type of community that religious communities embody that has a way of mediating a positive health effect," he told LiveScience.

Perhaps, he said, being involved in a religion "can then decrease your level of stress in life or increase your ability to cope with stress."

Another possibility: "Being in a religious community helps you make meaning out of your life," Hall suggested.

And it not only gives meaning to your life, but it's also cheaper:

Hall also looked at the cost of these three approaches, examining typical gym membership fees, therapy costs from health insurance companies and census data on average household contributions to religious institutions.

The estimated cost of each year of additional life apparently gained by each method:

Regular physical exercise: $4,000

Proven therapeutic regimens: $10,000

Regular religious attendance: $7,000

An unexpected result of the study: now we know a contributing factor to low Sunday contribution numbers.