DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Cheer up… this is how faking a smile could help you live to be 100 years old!

A friend’s father died recently at the age of 98. He hadn’t had a particularly healthy lifestyle: he smoked and drank quite a bit in his youth and fought in tanks in World War II. He attributed his longevity to the support of his wife and an exceptionally positive outlook on life.

So was he right? In fact, there is a lot of evidence that feeling positive about life and aging has a surprising impact on longevity.

And now a study just published in the Journal of Happiness Studies has identified six other aspects of personality linked to exceptional old age. The study was based on data from Spanish centenarians, aged between 100 and 107: in addition to being positive (feeling grateful for life and celebrating the good things that happen), all centenarians exuded vitality, loved learning new things, They were conscientious and sociable. , intellectually curious, self-sufficient and resilient.

I’m a bit of an Eeyore, with a tendency to expect the worst and see the dark side of life, so I have long been interested in researching the impact of personality on life expectancy.

A decade ago I made a documentary about the science behind such claims and came across a social experiment with truly fascinating implications for longevity.

In a study that began in the 1970s in the small Midwestern town of Oxford, Ohio, all residents over age 50 were asked to fill out questionnaires about their work, health, family, and attitudes toward the aging.

Decades later, researchers at Yale University studied these people again and found that being optimistic was a strong predictor of how long they were likely to live. Death records showed that those who had felt more optimistic about their lives and aging lived on average about seven and a half years longer than those who did not.

To put these results in context, if we could cure cancer tomorrow, we would add, on average, half that (three or four years) to life expectancy.

It’s unclear why ‘being positive’ leads to a longer life, but it could be that optimistic people seek and get more social support from others, and are less likely to suffer from chronic stress, which we know can affect your immune system. and shorten your life. In a study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, in 2021, further evidence was obtained for the role of the immune system in linking personality type and longevity.

Researchers at the University of Limerick compared the results of personality tests with blood samples from more than 900 older adults over a 14-year period; Surprisingly, as in the Spanish study, those who scored highest on being conscientious lived an average of 35 percent. more extensive. Additionally, they had significantly lower levels of interleukin-6, a measure of chronic inflammation that, in turn, is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, depression and dementia.

As for the other personality characteristics linked to longevity, researchers believe that being sociable and intellectually curious means you are more likely to take care of your health; and being resilient means having a greater sense of purpose; In other words, a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

If, like me, you’re not a happy, conscientious, positive soul by nature, here are some things I’ve found helpful:

Set small, simple goals and pat yourself on the back when you’ve achieved them. This is the basis of my podcast series, Just One Thing, as there is a lot of evidence that, in addition to the benefits that come from doing “the thing”, you also benefit from the feeling of achievement of having taken a small step. positive.

Practice gratitude meditations. My brother-in-law, who teaches at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, suggested that he set aside a few minutes each day to write or simply reflect on everyday things that I can be grateful for. I think doing this really helps me focus more on the positive.

Keep your friends and family close and expand your social network. Easier said than done, I know, but there’s plenty of evidence that having close friends is one of the most important forms of protection against stress and premature aging. One of the best things I’ve done on this front was joining a book club over 20 years ago, as it gave me a really diverse social network.

Starting conversations with strangers on planes and trains, and even standing in line for coffee, is also meant to be good, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Try reframing situations: When I catch myself having catastrophic thoughts about the future, I try to remember that those thoughts aren’t real and that things will probably turn out okay. What they usually do.

And smile. I’ve noticed that when people take photos of me, with my guard down, I rarely smile. However, a study of nearly 4,000 people, published in Nature Human Behavior last year, found that even faking a smile has a stress-reducing and happiness-increasing effect, albeit a small one.

Only time will tell if these attempts to modify my underlying Eeyore personality will help me live to be 100. But at least it’s more fun to have me around.

Save YOUR marriage from a sleeping divorce

I was struck by the recent Mail article in which Susannah Constantine described her “sleep divorce” from her husband – moving to a separate bedroom because of the terrible impact his loud snoring was having on her sleep.

The ‘sleeper divorce’ is very common. A survey last year suggested that five million couples in the UK sleep in separate beds to improve their sleep, and more than half of us currently sharing a bed are considering sleeping somewhere else.

It is not surprising that the most common reason is partner snoring. I have thought about moving to another room, not because my wife Clare snores, but because she is prone to talking and sleepwalks; She often gets out of bed in the middle of the night, turns on the lights and starts searching the closets for hamsters, patients or whatever else she’s convinced she’s missing.

All while completely asleep. After a few minutes he goes back to bed, not remembering any of this the next morning.

But I value closeness (and warmth) too much to ask for a divorce from sleep. However, if you are on the verge of your own divorce during sleep, there are measures to prevent it.

If snoring is the problem, address it by losing weight, avoiding alcohol late at night, and (after talking to your dentist) investing in a mandibular advancement device (a mouthguard that prevents the tongue from blocking the airway). .

And if your partner fidgets or hogs the duvet, try a larger bed and a second duvet.

If all else fails, every night before you move into your separate room, take some time to chat and snuggle. Maintaining intimacy is one of the best ways to help keep “real” divorce out of the picture.

What do Jeremy Clarkson and I have in common? In addition to being older men who occasionally appear on television, we both happen to suffer from hearing loss; in his case, bad enough to get a hearing aid.

This could more than halve your risk of developing dementia, as we know from research. And now, thanks to a team at the University of California, San Diego, we also know why poor hearing is linked to dementia: It appears that the extra effort involved in trying to hear causes changes in the brain that, in turn, lead to a higher risk of dementia.

Maybe the next time we meet, Jeremy and I will compare the last trumpets.

Who doesn’t secretly long for a pill that offers the benefits of exercise without the tedious huffing and puffing?

Well, researchers at the University of Florida have now had some success with this (at least in mouse studies), with a drug called SLU-PP-332.

This targets proteins which, in turn, make energy-starved tissues, such as muscles, more active.

An “exercise mimetic,” the drug does not replace exercise, but increases its impact, leading to weight loss and improved fitness. Researchers believe it could help maintain muscle mass as we age, when the impact of exercise tends to reduce.