How to Live Longer
Sense of Purpose, Fitness Level and Happiness
Recent interest in Laizhou, a city in the Shandong province named the ”Home of Longevity in China” reflects the current understanding that lifestyle can influence both length and quality of life. Towards the end of 2008, the city boasted of 81 centenarians at an unprecedented ratio of almost 10 per 100,000.
Research focusing on the relationship between length of life and lifestyle choices has uncovered three predictors of longevity: sense of purpose, fitness level and happiness.
Sense of Purpose
Being dedicated to a purpose in life can extend a person’s lifespan. Whether the purpose involves altruism or not seems immaterial according to a new study recently completed at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
As long as a person has a more than normal commitment to a sense of purpose, to a sense of meaning regarding life events, his chance of dying over a follow-up period is half as likely as someone without a goal or a lower level of engagement with a goal. This finding remains true even after controlling was done for factors such as depression symptoms, chronic medical conditions and disability.
What does this study reveal about the human will to live? The will to live thrives on having a raison d’être, a reason to be. In another recent study, researchers found that retirees over 65 who volunteered their time to help others had less than half the risk of dying during the follow-up period as did their peers who did not volunteer their time.
Fitness Level
Despite the belief that leanness contributes to longevity, researchers at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, found that it is fitness level, not body fat, that is a stronger indicator of longevity in older adults. This study contravenes the generally accepted notion that leanness extends life.
In a twelve year study involving 2600 adults with an average age of 64, researchers found that participants in the high fitness groups, regardless of body fat, were less likely to develop risk factors for cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, diabetes or high cholesterol levels. Participants who had lower fitness levels were linked to a greater number of risk factors.
Fit participants who were overweight fared much better than lean participants who were not fit. Even obese individuals who were fit had a lower risk of death than unfit, normal weight or lean individuals.
Happiness Level
An analysis of 30 follow up studies carried over 60 years completed by researchers at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University shows that a sense of happiness protects people from falling ill and contributes to longevity. In their tracking of long-term follow up studies, researchers discovered that while happiness has no effect on the longevity of seriously ill people, it does, however, prolong the lives of healthy people. By reducing chronic stress, happiness protects the body’s immune response. Happy people are also more likely to engage in healthy lifestyle choices such as exercise and healthy eating.
When asked why they were blessed with longevity, the people of Laizhou responded with the following reasons: optimism, clean soil, water, air, peaceful mind and regular work. They had a clear sense of purpose; they did not retire; many kept working at home and in their communities; they were fit because they did not rely on modern conveniences. They were happy because their lives were supported by fertile lands and social assistance.
Veenhoven et al. Healthy Happiness: Effects of Happiness on Physical Health and the Consequences for Preventive Health Care. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2008; 9 (3): 449
Happy Chinese Centenarian
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