Among older people, upbeat moods could mean greater life span. Happy people don't just enjoy life; they're likely to live longer, too. A new study has found that those in better moods were 35% less likely to die in the next 5 years when taking their life situations into account.
Turns out there is: Faces showing expressions of happiness were judged to be younger, and faces showing expressions of sadness were judged to be older.
Plenty of research suggests optimistic people have a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and declines in lung capacity and function. Optimism is also associated with a lower risk of early death from cancer and infection.
Not only did researchers find that older people tend to be happier, but that happiness is not something older participants have had all their lives. In other words, as people get older, say starting at age 50, happiness comes to them.
According to a new study published in the Social Indicators Research journal, we can expect to be happiest between the ages of 30 and 34. The study came to this conclusion by asking people over 50 from 13 European countries about the periods of their life in which they felt the most content.
The 20s...it's the phase where so many things change in our lives and it all happens so fast. There's angst, discovery, unpredictability and a sense of self-realization. It's the time we truly leave childhood behind and enter a whole new world of responsibility.
Happiness is U-shaped – it declines and bottoms out in your 40s, so report countless studies, until it starts to inch its way up again in the 50s. This is a remarkably consistent finding, across countries and cultures.
Among older people, upbeat moods could mean greater life span. Happy people don't just enjoy life; they're likely to live longer, too. A new study has found that those in better moods were 35% less likely to die in the next 5 years when taking their life situations into account.
"The study shows that older people who are happier and enjoy life more show slower declines in physical function as they age," researcher Andrew Steptoe said in a release. "They are less likely to develop impairments....and their walking speed declines at a lower rate than those who enjoy life less."
In new research, which has just been published in Frontiers, scientists have found that, on average, with a few exceptions, people really become nicer as they get older, and this is largely due to increased levels of oxytocin.
Smiling players lived on average EIGHT years longer than their more stoic counterparts. Another study out of the London University College found that happy, cheerful people were 35% more likely to live longer.
Research has found that grumpy people are more likely to not only live a longer life and earn more money, but have a healthier marriage too.
But another study looking at both men and women also found that people with the highest levels of optimism enjoyed a life span that was between 11 and 15 percent longer than those who were the least optimistic.
Smiling Ages You, Says 2017 Study
But researchers were shocked to find that the results were actually the opposite: The smiling faces were, on average, perceived as being around two years older than those same faces in neutral expressions.
The results with unmasked faces in the current study provide a robust replication of our previous findings (Ganel & Goodale, 2021). In particular, smiling faces were perceived as older than neutral faces for young female and male adults as well as for middle-aged male adults.
' Both genetics and lifestyle-related factors have an influence on our youthful appearance. The key to understand perceived ageing is the interaction between these two elements. Epigenetics can provide this key.
But a recent study provides even more motivation: Researchers have found that negative thoughts can lead to premature cell death—and that equals aging. How does that happen? The lifespan of a cell is dictated in part by a cellular structure called a telomere, which protects genetic data and helps cells divide.
Yes, those who are happy tend to have fewer wrinkles and lines and other outward signs of aging. Their skin tends to be more resilient, which allows them to look much younger than they actually are.
From getting enough physical activity to limiting alcohol and stress, these habits reduce the risk of chronic disease and slow the aging process – helping you look and feel your best for years to come.
2) Kindness protects telomeres
This is an oft-used analogy. Telomeres typically wear shorter as we age. For this reason, telomere length is considered a measure of a person's biological age or how fast they age over a period of time.
Appearance is a useful guide to longevity and can be used to distinguish those who will die young from those likely to live to a great age, researchers say. People who look young for their age enjoy a longer life than those who look older than their years, according to a study of twins.
Loving-kindness meditation slows biological aging in novices: Evidence from a 12-week randomized controlled trial. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
After looking at data from roughly 500,000 individuals in 132 countries, he found that happiness for people in advanced countries bottoms out at age 47.2. In developing countries, it reaches its lowest point at age 48.2. Blanchflower, 67, tells CNBC Make It that the findings also extend to his personal life.
According to a study published in the Social Indicators Research journal, we're the happiest between the ages of 30-34, and midlife (our 40s and 50s) is not perceived as the least happy period in life.
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