7 areas to check in your life for a better future Malcolm climbs onto roofs to replace iron panels, runs chartered fishing trips, plays competitive pool, and socializes most weeks at the local pub with his friends. Malcolm is 84 years old. He’s strong, fit, happy, and doesn’t look like he intends to slow down any time soon. What makes the difference between aging well, like Malcolm, or becoming frail and lonely in old age? That’s what Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, George Valliant M.D., helped to answer in a study that has spanned over 80 years. It led to one particularly surprising finding, but first let’s look at the study. The Study The life-long study began in 1938, with 268 participants: young Harvard men around 19 years old. They included a future best-selling novelist and a young man who later became a US president, John F. Kennedy. Over time the goals of the study changed as the researchers saw what an incredible resource they had at their fingertips. A second inner-city study was set up in Boston around the same time, with 456 young men aged 11–15. A third cohort, used in a smaller way for the Study of Adult Development, was the Study of Gifted Women. For this, 40 women of high IQs (over 140) were interviewed at age 78. Every couple of years, the male participants would fill in questionnaires, have health examinations, and be interviewed by the researchers. The Harvard study is now onto the second generation of participants. It has expanded to include the original participants’ daughters and sons to see what impact childhood experiences have on our health in midlife. George Valliant was the director of the study for over 40 years. What Valliant and a team of researchers found were clear indicators of aging well, one of which was found to be particularly important. What they discovered Once the men in the study entered retirement, seven indicators became obvious. If the men had 5 or 6 of these by the time they were 50-years-old, around half of them fell into the studies “happy and well” category in their 80s. If they only had 2 or 3 indicators, none of them were in the “happy and well” category. Where you’re at age 50 makes all the difference it seems! The first 4 indicators won’t surprise you — although they weren’t obvious to people at the time — but they’re a good confirmation and reminder of why we bother making an effort with our self-care. Self-Care Indicators 1. Not smoking We all know the dangers of smoking now, but smoking wasn’t linked to cancer until 1950. Even then, with glaringly obvious evidence from five case-controlled studies, no-one wanted to hear it. The medical community, scientists, and the general public were completely resistant to the idea that it could be harmful in any way. Instead of scaring people off, the 50s saw a upsurge in smoking. Instead of scaring people off, the 50s saw a upsurge in smoking. In countries such as the United Kingdom, up to 80 percent of adult men were regular smokers. It wasn’t until the mid-60s that some doctors began reporting on the negative effects of smoking, and people still weren’t keen to listen. Numbers of smokers didn’t start to drop significantly until the late 70s. “Smoking was an acceptable form of social behaviour in all areas of life — at work, in the home, in bars, and at the cinema — and advertisers were keen to show the full range of leisure activities made complete only through the addition of a cigarette.” — Encyclopedia Britannica, The Age of the Cigarette 2. Not abusing alcohol Again, obvious for us, but what constitutes “abuse” is still a contentious matter. The Global Drug Survey in 2021, looked at self-reported data from over 32,000 people in 22 countries (again, mostly white men). They found on average people drank around twice a week, with France and New Zealand the most frequent consumers of alcohol. Australians reported feeling drunk most often — about twice a month. So what’s too much alcohol when it comes to aging well? That question is still being studied and argued in scientific communities. One 2016 study concluded it’s best to have none at all. “(Alcohol) takes you in precisely the opposite direction from maturity. Alcohol is a cause, rather than a result, of life’s problems,” says Valliant. 3. and 4. Some exercise and a healthy weight Mental and physical health go hand-in-hand. Good genes, they found, didn’t matter in the long run. As reported from the study in The Atlantic, “Regular exercise in college predicted late-life mental health better than it did physical health. And depression turned out to be a major drain on physical health.” Social Indicators 5. Learning to use mature strategies One of the encouraging things for us in the study was that people can change. Men who were using immature coping strategies at 20 — like acting out or blaming others — began to use more mature ones in their 40s and 50s. They learned to be more forgiving, show empathy, and identify their feelings for example. In fact, it was normal for men in their 20s to employ “immature adaptations” as the researchers labelled it. “Those who were clearly train wrecks when they were in their 20s or 25s turned out to be wonderful octogenarians,” said Valliant. 6. Education This was a factor added after the inner-city study. “The more education the inner city men obtained,” wrote Vaillant in his book Aging Well, “the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly, and use alcohol in moderation.” One indicator stood out from the rest 7. Stable relationships “When the study began, nobody cared about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.” — George Vaillant More than wealth, more than fitness, more than how successful, smart, or famous you are — relationships were found to be the number one key to a happy, healthy life. “The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” said Robert Waldinger , in The Harvard Gazette. Waldinger is a psychiatrist, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the current director of the study. “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.” “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.” This is a really important finding for us in our current loneliness epidemic. Medical advancement helps us live longer, but we need to turn our attention to living in more connected ways — supporting emotional intelligence, which builds relationships and community — otherwise what’s the point? It’s not even about having a ton of friends. It’s about your mindset towards other people. “What’s critical is allowing yourself to love others, and being able to take people in,” says Valliant. “Worry less about cholesterol and more about gratitude and forgiveness.” Wrapping it up Most of these we’re pretty familiar with. They make sense. The study however continues to reveal new data and insights as it matures into the second generation of participants. One of the obvious and major limitations of the original study is the fact that most of the data came from the male participants, the majority of them white and well-off. Other more recent studies with diverse participants have confirmed many of the results, though, including the huge Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Also, culturally and socially, there have been many changes since 1938 when the Harvard study began. Still, there’s a lot we can learn from following people’s lives for such a long period of time. I think the most encouraging for us is the fact that, with a few simple tweaks to our lifestyles and our outlook and attitude towards others, we can always improve our health and our future. “The best advice I can give,” says Waldinger, “is ‘Take care of your body as though you were going to need it for 100 years,’ because you might.”
They could have just said, be a Mormon. Mormons are the longest living group in the USA and pretty much all of the indicators are fitting. What is the definition of NOT abusing alcohol? 12 beers a week is OK?
For traders i would like to add. Make sure you don't have any big trading losses are 50 years old. This probably falls under 5.Learning to use mature strategies
That is silly. In a decade it is 6240 beers, in a century... You probably eat a thousand chicken in your lifetime, that sounds high. 1.7 beer per day is pretty low in my book specially with an active lifestyle. It is about 200 calories.
You can probably eat chicken every day. But they warn us against too much red meat. It don't think about the calories in beer and I don't drink enough to do liver damage. But i get the feeling daily use of alcohol probably increases my risk of getting cancer. Not that it stops me.
Assuming you have a normal metabolism 12 beers a week is not abuse or anything to be concerned about.
Yes, the keys were always said to stay active physically, spiritually and mentally. It's interesting the emphasis placed on being socially active, also.