Last night I weighed in at 149, my first time under 150 since I got pregnant! Just 10 lbs. to go on my 2011 goal. Let's hope I can keep it up. I've been walking home from work or daycare most days, so getting about 30 minutes of exercise. I know I should be doing weight-training, especially on my upper body, but at least I'm doing something.
The other day I read an article about a very old man (113?) who had recently passed away. The article detailed his very long career and other things about his lifestyle and philosophy.
While he sounded economically comfortable, he wasn't super-wealthy as far as I could tell. It occurred to me that I don't remember reading any bios of extremely aged people that mentioned them being rich.
I've heard that economic factors play into overall longevity (and longer active/healthy years), which makes sense when you think about access to good food, education about health, and medical care. But I wondered how much effect wealth had on superlongevity.
Not much, it seems. Most of the articles I read focused on the New England Centenarian Study, but I also read one that surveyed Chinese superlongevity. Socieconomic status and education varied wildly and showed no easily explained pattern. In the Chinese study, about 50% reported having had a serious childhood illness or injury, and about 50% reported having gone hungry as a child. Nor did whether they lived alone, with family or in assisted living, according to a study of Georgia centenarians (though that one reported a vast majority were female and white). The dominant common characteristics, according to the New England study, were:
- Lack of obesity, especially in the men.
- No substantial smoking history.
- Ability to handle stress better than the majority of people.
- 15% had no significant changes in their thinking abilities.
- For women, a history of bearing children after the age of 35 years and even 40 years. (They think it's not the act of bearing a child in one’s 40s that promotes long life, but it may be an indicator that the woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly and that the rest of her body is as well.)
- First-degree relatives and/or grandparents who also achieve very old age, and many have exceptionally old siblings.
- Their offspring score low in neuroticism and high in extraversion.
- Genetics play a very strong role.
(http://www.bumc.bu.edu/centenarian/overview/)
Very interesting that one thing money can't buy is a super-long life. It's like those studies that indicate there's a "sweet spot" of wealth, and that after a certain point the correlation between money and happiness ends. (Although, I bet if scientists are able to isolate the superlongevity gene and apply it to other people somehow, that would be a very expensive procedure and the superwealthy, could well become the super-aged. But probably still not happy, LOL.)
Even overall longevity needn't be tied to economics necessarily. Areas of the country or world where the average lifespan is 10-15 years longer share common characteristics that don't have to do with money:
- Family - Family is put ahead of other concerns.
- No Smoking - Centenarians do not typically smoke.
- Plant-based diet - The majority of food consumed is derived from plants.
- Constant moderate physical activity - Moderate physical activity is an inseparable part of life.
- Social engagement - People of all ages are socially active and integrated into their communities.
- Legumes - Legumes are commonly consumed.
(This is from a Wikipedia entry on "blue zones," which is what these places are called. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone)
So, those are my Monday ramblings. Interview is tomorrow, so I think I'm both trying to distract myself from nervousness AND remind myself that I have interesting thoughts from time to time!
Thoughts on longevity to accompany some health progress
May 9th, 2011 at 07:19 pm
May 9th, 2011 at 07:42 pm 1304970127
I have some centenarians in my family, so I think about living a long time as a distinct possibility (it's in the genes).
For my family - it is my impoverished relatives. Since the lived off the land, I think that can be a lot of it.
That said: "Ability to handle stress better than the majority of people." That is the bulk of the strength in my family. Both of my dad's maternal and paternal parents' family have extremely happy/optimistic genes, though they lived through some really trying times. So my dad seems to take after that. That said, his mom was a pretty bitter/unhappy person. It was always kind of like, "Where the heck did she come from??" She passed in her 80s, which was the younger side, really, for that family. One of her sisters recently retired (she is almost 90! Never had ANY health issues).
This is why my dad's heart attack at 57 was SO shocking. No one in his family has had any health issues like that, but after lack of food as a child, he REALLY enjoys his food. My dad already had a series of health problems (bad kidneys, high blood pressure, high cholesterol - the last 2 which are genetic - he has always been on medication for. I just don't think his parents had access to high-fat foods, so could better control their cholesterol).
Interestingly, there are no centenarians in my dh's family, but his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother seem to be well on their way. In their late 80s, very independent, high energy, and few health issues that we know of.
May 10th, 2011 at 12:45 am 1304988322
May 10th, 2011 at 06:54 pm 1305053678
May 10th, 2011 at 10:27 pm 1305066455
I'm sorry to hear about your childhood being bad. I knew a bit about your marriage from past blog posts...
To answer your question: Not necessarily. How you deal with stress does seem to factor in. However, the fact that you're triumphing over all these circumstances might point to you handling stress quite well!
It sounds like from the Chinese study that people could have very tough childhoods and still achieve superlongevity.