Dec

12

Want to Live a Long and Fulfilling Life? Change How You Think About Getting Old
Research consistently shows our attitudes and beliefs influence our health and longevity.

Data is mounting, much of it from research by Yale epidemiologist Becca Levy, about the impact our attitudes and beliefs have on our health and longevity. Levy’s interest in the connection began in the 1990s, when she traveled to Japan to try to understand why the Japanese had the longest lifespan in the world. She was familiar with explanations that attributed this longevity to diet—Japanese people consume less meat, dairy products, sugar and potatoes than other wealthy countries. But what stood out to her was how the culture respected and celebrated older people.

“It struck me as very different to what I had observed in the U.S.,” she told me. “So I began to wonder if these positive age beliefs could contribute to the longer lifespan in Japan.”

Nils Poertner writes:

Psychology plays a huge role here - eg. excessive nostalgia means one does not appreciate the moment - in my view it is also linked to far-sightedness (went farsighted at the age of 15! which is rare and then recovered). there is somewhat a placebo in life - and the joke is on us really.

Big Al comments:

There are maybe complicated issues around causality, e.g., do people with a positive attitude live longer and better, or do people with underlying factors that promote health and longevity tend to have a positive attitude? But I will stipulate that we might as well try it. Which leads to the issue of people feeling like they have failed if they *don't* have a positive attitude. Perhaps as a way of avoiding this pitfall, we could be given information on how to *practice* a positive attitude. Then, over time and with practice, we might see a benefit.


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