How to Live a Long, Happy Life

* Be very outgoing.

* Learn how to manage stress.

These two common traits were found in the children of people who lived to 100, and longevity runs in families.

“We have observed that these appear to be really important traits that set the children of centenarians apart from other people the same age who may not age as well,” said Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine. The study focuses on older people and their family members, and has tracked the health of children of centenarians as they age, trying to uncover the common denominators of longevity.

Perls and his colleagues looked at 246 children of those who lived to 100 to see if they, now about age 75, had common personality traits. Five personality traits were identified, evaluated and compared to published norms. They were: Neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

The researchers found that the offspring of centenarians were more extroverted than the published norms. That means “they are quite social, establish important friendships and view these friendships as ’safety nets,’ ” important sources of help when needed, Perls said.

Those studied scored lower than the norms on neuroticism, which enables them to manage stress very well.

Women in the study also scored high in agreeableness, a trait that leads to more friendships. The men in the study scored no higher in agreeableness than normal, and men and women scored average levels for openness and conscientiousness.

As for the exact relationship between personality and longevity, “we are relying on scientific literature to understand exactly what it means,” Perls said. For instance, he said, it makes sense that scoring lower in neuroticism — and handling stress well — would contribute to a longer life, because stress has been shown in scientific studies to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Other research has found social ties to be important to an older person’s health.

“We really found that the offspring of centenarians, in their 70s and early 80s, are very much following in the footsteps of their parents,” Perls said. “They have 60 percent reduced rates of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.”

But what to do if you aren’t naturally outgoing and aren’t good at handling stress?

You can get better at each.

Not naturally outgoing?

Make a point of trying to be more outgoing. Travel more, engage others in conversations, join groups with common interests, volunteer.

You don’t handle stress well?

Read all of the stress management posts on this and other sites, and figure out what will work for you—then DO IT!

And take the Life Expectancy Calculator at Living to 100.

You may learn some new tricks to improve your quality of life.

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*More on this topic can be found online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 8:05 am and is filed under Family, In The News, Mental Health, New Research, Stress, Wellness, Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.