Earlier work has shown that patients with heart disease who have a high intake of omega-3s have higher survival rates, and this new study sought to explain why this might be.

“We’ve shown an entirely new effect of omega-3 fatty acids, which may be to slow down the biological aging process in patients with coronary heart disease,” explains lead author Ramin Farzaneh-Far, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

Farzaneh-Far and the team looked at a marker of biological age – shortening of telomeres, the structures at the end of a chromosome that are involved with its replication and stability.

Experts believe that as telomeres shorten, the eventual result is the death of the cell. In earlier work by the team, the telomere length of heart disease patients was a powerful predictor of death and bad outcomes. The shorter the telomeres, the greater risk of death.

For the study, the researchers evaluated 608 outpatients in California who had stable heart disease and had been recruited from the Heart and Soul Study.

At the start of the study and at the five-year point, blood samples were taken and evaluated for omega-3 fatty acid levels. DNA from the blood allowed researchers to look at the length of the telomere of the leukocyte, a type of blood cell. The subjects were followed up until January 2009.

“Patients with the lowest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids exhibited a rate of telomere shortening 2.6 times faster than patients with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids,” Farzaneh-Far tells online medical resource WebMD. And while no one has enough information to convert telomere length to years of aging, experts suspect omega-3 might be one of many influences on the length of telomeres – others being inflammation, obesity, oxidative stress and lack of activity.

Would lots of omega-3s in the blood help a patient with heart disease? Experts can’t say for sure.

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Omega-3s Slow Aging Continued…

There was no association between omega-3 fatty acid levels and telomere length back in September 2000 and December 2002 when the study began. But by the end of the follow up period the team saw the higher the blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the subjects, the slower the rate of telomere shortening.

Of course this is exciting news, demonstrating how sources of omega-3s work at a cellular level. One day your doctor might even be able to conduct a test that examines your telomere length with an eye to predicting your risk of heart disease.

Whether you’re a heart disease patient or not, this research might have you wondering what to do about omega-3s?

The American heart Association recommends a gram a day of omega-3 fatty acid for those who do have heart disease. Look for natural dietary sources like oily fish (salmon, mackerel, albacore tuna) or supplements.

If you don’t have heart disease, the AHA suggests you eat a variety of fish at least two times a week, as well as trying to add more healthy oils like canola, soybean and flaxseed to your cooking.

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And while being active is important to young people, there was little research on the effect of high impact exercise on bone density as we age.

Now some new research finds high-impact exercise may be even more critical as we get older, especially since bone mass peaks during the 30’s and declines afterward.

A sampling of senior athletes, both men and women aged 50 to 93, who took part in the 2005 National Senior Games (also known as the Senior Olympics), including 560 who competed in high impact sports like basketball, road racing, track and field, triathlons and volleyball found that these athletes had higher bone mineral density than those who didn’t take part in these activities.

These findings appear in the November/December 2009 issue of Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach.

The athletes completed a detailed health history questionnaire and underwent ultrasound to measure bone mineral density.

They were classified by the researchers as participating in high impact sports or low impact sports. The ultrasound scans revealed that older athletes who participated in high impact sports had better bone mineral density than those who took part in the low impact variety.

This even after age, sex, obesity and use of any osteoporosis medication was factored in.

“Our study represents the largest sample of bone mineral density data in mature athletes to date,” says Dr. Vonda Wright, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “My colleagues and I were surprised to see that active adult participation in the high-impact sports had such a positive influence on bone health, even in the oldest athletes.”

Of course osteoarthritis (abbreviated as OA, sometimes also called degenerative arthritis) and other conditions might keep older folks from taking part in high impact activities.

Continues below…

High Impact Great For Older Bones Continued…

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of the over 1000 different types of arthritis, affecting over 20 million Americans, most as they get older when the water content of the cartilage increases causing the protein makeup of the cartilage to degenerate.

Without the cartilage cushion, friction of the bones causes pain and the limitation of mobility and is most common in the hands, feet, spine and large weight bearing joints like the hips and knees.

If you know you have this condition, talk to your doctor about what activities are best for you before you begin any exercise program.

Still it’s good to know that not only young bones can benefit from high impact exercise. Things like weight training, walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, tennis and even dancing can play a positive role in keeping your bones healthy as you get older.

But remember, always check with your doctor first, and work to make regular activity, at least 30 minutes on most days of the week, part of your routine.

Your bones (and the rest of your body) will thank you.

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Improvements in medical care, as well as changes in diet and lifestyle are all helping us live longer, but our bodies are still wearing out at the same rate. In an effort to promote “50 active years after 50″ experts at Leeds University are launching a research initiative that will invest $88 million over the next 5 years to uncover innovative solutions to make this a reality.

They suggest that options like own-grown tissue and durable implants, new medical devices and regenerative therapies will allow people to be as active in their second 50 years as they were in their first 50.

The research will focus on the areas most affected by age – joints, spine, teeth, heart and circulation. New heart valves, hips and knees are the starting point, though someday experts hope that nearly any body part that wears out with age might be replaced.

The Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering at Leeds has already completed a hip transplant that should last a lifetime.

This is far better than the 20 year maximum life expected out of today’s artificial hips. The newest hip mechanism is a combination of a durable cobalt-chrome metal alloy socket and a ceramic ball able to hold up to the 100 million steps a patient can be expected to take before their hundredth birthday.

And unlike studies that focus on stem cells or growing spare parts in a laboratory, this work uses your body’s own regenerative systems.

Professor Eileen Ingham and her team have come up with a way to help the body enhance itself. The idea is to make transplantable tissues, maybe even organs, that are made naturally by the body. This would mean no rejection, the main reason that today’s transplants wear out and fail.

Using a “scaffolding” technique, researchers have managed to make heart valves that are fully functional.

The process involves a healthy donor heart valve (from a person or suitable animal), cartilage or other vessel being washed using a cocktail of enzymes and detergents that gently strip away cells. The inert “scaffold” that remains can be transplanted into a patient without any concern over rejection. Once the inert material is in place, the body takes over and repopulates it with cells.

Animal trails, as well as work involving 40 Brazilian human patients are showing promising results.

The technology has been licensed to the NHS National Blood and Transplant Tissue Services so it can be used all across the UK on any donated human tissue. Today the NHS is investigating using this technique on donor skin for burn patients.

Of course what experts are hoping for is to be able to eliminate the need for donor organs. Technology to replace all donor tissue might take from 30 to 50 years because each product must be designed and tested on its own.

Professor Christina Doyle of Xeno Medical (the company that’s developing the technology) points out that other researchers are working on regenerative therapies grown completely outside the body, looking at how to “stop” aging with more and more vigour.

Today we have more hope than ever that those years after 50 will be healthy, active ones lived in a body of someone half that age.

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American researchers have found that being fat in middle age cuts a woman’s chances of reaching a ripe old age in good physical and mental shape by almost 80%.

The study appears online in the medical journal BMJ, and was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center.

With average life spans increasing due to advances in both detecting and treating illness, it’s those extra pounds so many of us carry that might just undo these hard won gains.

And since fat is known to act the same way in both men and women, it’s likely these results linking extra weight at midlife with a reduced chance of a healthy old age hold for men as well as women.

The team of researchers observed over 17,000 female nurses, part of the U.S. Nurses’ Health Study, who were an average age of 50 years and healthy, when the study began in 1976.

The subjects weight and health changes such as occurrence of chronic diseases, information on cognitive function, physical function and mental health were taken every 2 years by questionnaires until 2000. In terms of weight we know that a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 19-25 is considered more healthy, numbers from 25-29.9 designate a person thought to be overweight, and a value over 30 is categorized as obese.

Researchers Qi Sun and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that for every one point increase in BMI women had a 12% lower chance of making it to age 70 in good health compared to those with lower BMI.

Good health was defined as being free of 11 different chronic conditions while also having enough physical and mental ability to do everyday things like shopping, cleaning or climbing stairs.

What’s more, for every 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) a woman gained after age 18, her odds of living past 70 dropped by 5%. Subjects who were already overweight at 18 and then gained more than 10 kilograms later in life had about a 20% chance of making it to age 70 in good health.

You can see how those extra pounds early on can bring some real troubles as you get older. The diseases often plaguing these overweight women were major, life changing ones – like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

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Overweight In Middle Age Can Reduce Life Continued…

“People may think they can safely gain weight through their 20s, 30s and 40s, but there is no evidence that gaining weight is natural,” points out Aviva Must, professor and chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine, but not part of the study. “These results suggest that small weight gains are not innocuous.”

Medical experts agree that our population is aging, and that obesity is more common than ever before. In fact, in 2003-4, a record 66.3% of American adults were overweight or obese – this compared to just 14.5% in 1976 when the Nurses’ Health Study began.

Adding to the need to get rid of those extra pounds is the work by British researchers published earlier this year that found those with a BMI from 30-35 die almost 3 years earlier than those with BMI’s in the normal range.

Anyone with a BMI over 40 is considered morbidly obese and likely to die almost 10 years before they should.

All the more reason for getting up – getting active now, so average age expectancy is increased

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Israeli researchers are the first to find that even a little bit of activity (about 4 hours a week) in the routines of the most elderly people (those in their mid to late 80s) can extend life by at least few years.

In fact, the three year survival rate of active subjects in their 80s was almost three times higher compared to those of the same age group who weren’t active.

What’s more, those who were active even at this advanced age reported less loneliness and depression, along with a better ability to do everyday things. It seems that exercise, when done properly and regularly, has benefits to body, mind and quality of life at any age.

The study included 1,861 residents of Jerusalem who were seventy years old in 1990. The participants filled out questionnaires covering their health and levels of activity from this point through 2008.

At age 85, 64% of the subjects were physically active – a large number that’s almost certainly a factor of the Israeli lifestyle. Still, the team believes that the benefits of being active would be seen in the elderly populations of other countries.

During the course of the study there were 512 deaths, just a bit fewer than 7% of the active 85 year olds were dead by the age of 88; about 24% of the 85 year olds who were not active had died by this same age.

A look at the percentages here tells the tale that death rates were lower in the active seniors. The team even accounted for factors that affect survival such as the participants overall health and smoking status, and yet still activity levels were strongly related to living longer.

The results of this work add weight to the idea that being active, even in old age, is good for you.

Similar benefits have been shown for younger people, those in their 60s and 70s. What’s most encouraging of all is that it’s never too late to start. Even for those of this age group who weren’t active before, once they started, their three year survival rate was double that of the inactive subjects of the same age.

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Exercise Goes A Long Way – Even In Your Mid 80s Continued…

Experts not involved in the work point out that the study can’t rule out that subjects who were able to exercise at such an advanced age might have started off healthier in the first place.

The good news for older folks is that the type of activity doesn’t have to be super-strenuous, it can as gentle as walking in 15 minute increments a few times a day. “As little as four hours a week was as beneficial as more vigorous or prolonged activity,” points out study author Dr. Jeremy Jacobs, a geriatric specialist at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

If you’d like to get more active, but you’re getting up there in years, don’t despair. Talk with your doctor about the kinds of activity that might be right for you.

Consider working with a personal trainer so that you’re using proper form – so you get the most from your workout and reduce the chance you’ll hurt yourself.

You’ll also want to be sure you take in enough fluids – especially if you’re active in warmer weather. It’s important to start slow and build over time. As the research shows, people do live longer with exercise, and you don’t need to be doing workouts worthy of professional athletes, just getting up and going is enough.

To your good health,

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Experts say there are things you can do to improve your memory and keep your brain healthy, no matter how old you are.

Check out these suggestions and see how many you can make part of your regular routine…

- Floss every day – plaque on your teeth is unexpectedly bad for your brain. “The plaque between teeth can cause an immune reaction that attacks arteries, which then can’t deliver vital nutrients to brain cells,” points out Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author of YOU–The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger. Keep the floss with all the things you use to get ready in the morning so you’re less likely to forget.

- Multitask during a workout – stretching brain and body at the same time can have a real impact on both body and mind. Experts suggest doing double duty revitalizes brain cells. You might try a crossword while riding a stationary bike, listen to books on tape or language lessons while on the treadmill or jogging. If doing two things at once isn’t your thing, do the mental exercise right after your physical workout when your brain is pumped full of energy.

- Eat brain foods – DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid known to be important for optimal brain function, can be found in salmon, trout and even fortified options like yogurt. It’s good for your brain to try to get all you can from natural food sources. “DHA decreases arterial inflammation and improves repair of the protective sheath around nerves,” Roizen explains. “The result is less age-related memory loss, less Alzheimer’s disease, less depression, and a quicker mind.”

- Play games – handheld or video games aren’t just kids’ stuff; these help sharpen your memory as well as your problem solving and spatial skills. You can use things like the new 3D Rubik’s Cube, handheld games like Tetris or solitaire, electronic games like the Wii or Nintendo DS, even games like Jeopardy or Millionaire on TV, anything that stretches your thinking or is a new-to-you activity will work wonders.

- Get moving – getting your heart rate up three times a week for 20 minutes at a time brings more oxygen to the brain and helps it grow new cells. Walking, cycling or any activity that gets you up and moving on a regular basis is a great choice. In fact, exercise like this may be two to three time more effective as anything else you do for your brain according to Sam Wang Ph.D., an associate professor at Princeton University and co-author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzle of Everyday Life.

Even better news for the too-busy-to-workout crowd? The latest research finds that just one moderate to rigorous exercise session a week can make you 30% more likely to hold onto your cognitive functioning as the years pass.

- Start a club – it can be a book club, a bridge club, regular dinners, in fact anything that helps you combine strategy and memory offers a challenge to the brain to learn new things, exercising cells so they don’t just die off. Socializing while you play, rather than enjoying a solitary game, adds a level of involvement and challenge that does a whole lot for your brain (not to mention your social life).

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Smart, Easy Ways To Keep Your Memory Sharp At Any Age Continued…

- Use your fingertips – any fingertip activity, like knitting, using chopsticks, even rolling a pen/pencil between your fingers helps your brain by boosting circulation. Good circulation serves to eliminate waste products that might prevent much-needed nutrients from reaching your brain. What’s more, studies show that using the concentrated areas of nerve cells in your fingertips directly stimulates your brain.

- Be careful with medications – research has shown that nonprescription sleep medications might cause some “cognitive impairment” in older people. Also, the drug known as diphenhydramine (in many allergy preparations and nighttime pain pills) is known to have an “anticholinergic” effect – blocking communication between nerve cells. Talk with your doctor about the right medication for your needs, and be sure to mention any cognitive side effects you experience.

Even if you can’t make all of these ways to improve your memory, and include them as part of your life right now, try to adopt one or two into your routine and see how you feel. Chances are these simple, natural choices will bring benefits to your brain (and body) not only today, but for years to come.

To your good health,

Daily Health Bulletin Editor
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If that’s not for you, you can find a more general answer in a just released longevity study report out of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics known as the National Vital Statistics Report released in August 19, 2009 on life expectancy.

Even though the data is preliminary, it can be counted as reliable and is often confirmed by final numbers.

The numbers go like this – a total of 2,423,995 people of all ages died during 2007, down from the number of deaths in 2006. The nation’s age adjusted death rate also dropped from 776.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2006, to 760.3 in 2007. Good news for the U.S., though there are large variations in life expectancy around the world.

In May 2009 a World Health Organization report titled World Health Statistics 2009 found that Japan had the highest life expectancy in the world at 83 years.

The African countries of Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali and Nigeria had a horrendous life expectancy of just 49 years.

Most of the difference can be attributed to differences in public health, medical care and diet from place to place. Poorer nations dealing with the scourges of war, starvation and disease pay a human toll as well.

Life expectancy is a measure computed for a group of people, all born in the same year, assuming that mortality at each age stays constant going forward.

Quality of life in an area of the world also has an impact on life expectancy as does your family history and lifestyle. As you might expect, improvement over the centuries, especially during the Industrial Revolution, has impacted the infant mortality rate, though some countries still lag sadly behind.

Infant mortality is an important component in all of this. A baby born in 2007 has a life expectancy that’s 1.4 years longer than babies born just a decade earlier. The preliminary infant death rate was 6.77 deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged since 2006.

The top three causes of infant death were birth defects, disorders related to early delivery and low birth weight, and finally the heartbreaking sudden infant death syndrome.

Our life expectancy continues to go up in the United States, increasing by 2.5 months in 2007 over 2006 levels. Based on the latest numbers life expectancy…

-For babies born in 2007: life expectancy is 77.9 years (up from 77.7 years in 2006)

- For white women born in 2007: life expectancy is 80.7 years (up from 80.6 years in 2006)

- For white men born in 2007: life expectancy is 75.8 years (up from 75.7 years in 2006)

- For black women born in 2007: life expectancy is 77 years (up from 76.5 years in 2006)

- For black men born in 2007: life expectancy is 70.2 years (up from 69.7 years in 2006)

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U.S. Life Expectancy Rising By More Than A Year Continued…

The Center for Disease Control report also lists the top fifteen causes of death, along with the change in their age-adjusted death rate since 2006. Most went down…· Heart disease: down 4.7%

· Cancer: down 1.8%

· Stroke: down 4.6%

· Chronic lower respiratory diseases (lung diseases): up 1.7%

· Accidents: down 5%

· Alzheimer’s disease: no significant change

· Diabetes: down 3.9%

· Influenza and pneumonia: down 8.4%

· Kidney disease: no significant change

· Septicemia (an infection that affects the blood and other parts of the body): unchanged

· Suicide: no significant change

· Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: no significant change

· High blood pressure (hypertension): down 2.7%

· Parkinson’s disease: no significant change

· Homicide: down 6.5%

The CDC will publish the final life expectancy longevity study and death numbers later in 2009.

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1. Don’t smoke – if you do, try to quit

2. Get active – at least 3.5 hours a week

3. Stay away from junk food and follow a diet rich in fruits and veggies,

whole grain breads, with limited amount of lean meat.

4. Watch your weight – keep the BMI under 30

Not altogether surprising suggestions – public health officials have been saying these things for years.

The startling news is the benefit some recent research has found to doing all four things at the same time.

Living this way cuts your risk of developing some pretty serious chronic diseases by almost 80%. The result holds even after adjusting for things like age, sex, education and occupation status.

The recommendations come from a report in this month’s Archives of Internal Medicine that analyzed the lifestyle, diet and health of 23,513 German adults who were from 35 to 65 years old and part of the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam study.

Begun in the mid 1990s and covering an eight year period, the work found that subjects with healthy habits were far less likely to be diagnosed with conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

The team analyzed each person’s body weight, height, disease history, food frequency and how well they stuck with the four healthy lifestyle tips.

Only 9% of the subjects followed all four recommendations, but most of the participants practiced from one to three of these good-for-you habits.

All in all, following all four healthy habits combined was linked to…

· 93% lower risk of type 2 diabetes

· 81% lower risk of heart attack

· 50% lower risk of stroke

· 36% lower risk of cancer

These findings reinforce the idea that making simple, everyday changes to a healthier lifestyle is worth the effort.

It’s clear that healthy habits can have a huge impact on your health over the long term. If you’re concerned about living well into your later years, this study points out things you can do today – stopping smoking, keeping your weight under control, being more active – to keep your body healthy.

Healthier, disease free living starts with you. All you have to do is commit yourself to these four totally natural lifestyle choices to keep your body in shape.

If you smoke, you probably know it’s time to stop. Luckily there’s help quitting from support groups, nicotine replacement therapy, hypnosis or with medication – talk with your doctor to see which option is right for you.

All it takes is a simple change, like cutting down on junk foods is a painless but practical first step. Before you know it you’ll have dropped a few pounds, maybe discovered some healthy foods you actually like.

Once you’re eating better you’ll be more inclined to get up and exercising, which will show rewards almost at once in how you feel.

Before you know it, you’re living better, you’ve cut disease risk, your feeling better, and on your way to a healthier, happier life.

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Adults in their mid 40s with even slightly elevated cholesterol (as well as those with high cholesterol) appear to have a greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease or related conditions like vascular dementia years later.

Researchers followed over 9,800 northern California residents who were part of the same health insurance plan during the study. The researchers didn’t have information on HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol because these weren’t widely understood when the study began in the early 1960s.

Still, if total cholesterol is high, it’s logical to assume that levels of the bad cholesterol must also be high since two thirds of the total comes from the LDL (bad) type. The team looked at the total cholesterol levels of participants between 1964 and 1973 when the subjects were between 40-45 years old.

By the end of the research, almost 600 of the subjects had developed either Alzheimer’s disease (469 subjects) or a related condition (vascular dementia in 127 subjects) when they were in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

Subjects with total cholesterol in the high range (240 or higher) at the start of the study had a 66% increase in Alzheimer’s risk. Borderline high cholesterol (levels between 200-239) brought a 52% increased risk of vascular dementia but no statistically significant risk of Alzheimer’s.

“People tend to think of the brain and the heart as totally separate, but they are not,” says study co-author Rachel A. Whitmer, PhD of Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California. “We are learning that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain – and that midlife is not too soon to be thinking about risk factors for dementia.”

This work adds to the growing evidence that controlling your risk factors for heart disease as well as keeping a handle on your weight in midlife can protect the brain as you age. “Keeping your weight down, eating right, and getting regular exercise can keep your heart healthy as you age, and it may also keep your brain sharp,” adds lead author Alina Solomon of the University of Kuopio.

Recent estimates have 2.4 to 4.5 million Americans living with the terribly destructive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, an irreversible and progressive disease that destroys thinking and memory, leaving patients without the ability to do everyday things like cooking, dressing, driving a car, making decisions.

Continues below…

*Highly Recommended*

This Doctor Dropped 10 Sizes – Discover Her Shocking Secret

There’s an overwhelming body of research that shows most diets aren’t effective in the long term because they work AGAINST the body…

In fact most people who diet end up putting ON more weight than when they started.

It’s because most diets deprive you of the foods you enjoy, stop you getting the nutrients you need…basically forcing your body into ’starvation mode’…

Joy Siegrist MD developed a diet that works WITH your body…one that has a 96% success rate.

And to prove it she used it to drop 10 dress sizes.

Click through now to discover how Dr Joy dropped 10 dress sizes…

Even Slightly High Cholesterol Could Raise Risk Of Alzheimer’s Continued…

As yet, science doesn’t know what sets off the Alzheimer’s process, though experts think the damage starts 10 to 20 years before any mental symptoms appear, and this latest work seems to support the silent progression of this disease.

If you have high cholesterol, start by talking to your doctor to get updated cholesterol numbers and learn what you can do to take control of your diet, be more active. Also, if necessary medication can help bring your numbers under control.

Being aware of the link between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as following actions might not just help your health today, but it may also contribute to your future brain health as well.

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“It can be anything – from wanting to accomplish a goal in life, to achieving something in a volunteer organization, to as little as reading a series of books,” confirms study author Dr. Patricia Boyle, a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, as well as assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

The intriguing study involved 1,238 community dwelling older adults who were already taking part in two ongoing research projects (known as the Rush Memory and Aging Project started in 1997, and the Minority Aging Research Study started in 2004) at Rush.

Dementia free at the start of the study, the average age of the participants was 78, and they were all asked to answer questions about their purpose in life.

At the start of the research participants rated themselves in different areas that were meant to measure the tendency to find meaning from life and the ability to work toward a goal.

The average score was 3.7 (out of a possible 5.0) on the sense of purpose evaluation.

In a follow up period that lasted up to five years, the researchers found that those who reported a greater level of purpose in life were about half as likely to die during the follow up as those who reported a lower level of purpose.

Even after factoring for things like depression, chronic medical conditions or disability, as well as age, sex, education and race, life purpose was still a factor in living longer.

“What this is saying is, if you find purpose in life, if you find your life is meaningful and if you have goal-directed behavior, you are likely to live longer.”

Study lead Dr. Patricia Boyle, believes this work is the first large-scale investigation to look at the link between life purpose and longevity.

Earlier work has shown that having a purpose in life is important to maintaining psychological wellness, as well as being important to physical health as well.

This follows up another study that found that retirees over 65 who carry out volunteer work had less than half the risk of dying during the four year follow up than those who did not give of their time.

You can learn more about the benefits of volunteering by checking out the website for the U.S. Corporation for National and community Service. Some of the best benefits of volunteering include…

- Meeting new people.
- Feeling needed and valued
- Sharing your skills and learning new ones
- Experiencing something new
- Contributing to a cause you care about

Continues below…

*Highly Recommended*

Professional Trainer (CPT) Reveals Truth About Quick Fat Loss…

Have you ever dreamt about hiring a personal trainer? Just think of the results you’d achieve! Well, now you can have access to your own PT at no cost.

Mike Geary, a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), has blown the lid off the ‘Professional’ health industry and released a no-cost “no-gimick” insiders report which reveals the explosive truth about fat loss…

And he’s giving his insider report away today – you can get your copy here at Lean Body Fitness Secret

New Study Shows Having Life Purpose Improves Longevity continued…

While this study on life purpose and longevity can’t with absolute certainty show that a sense of purpose is tied to longevity, the evidence is strong.

In the future, Boyle and her team hope to see if the secrets of longevity will work by inspiring older people to find a purpose in life… maybe by learning to set goals and then work toward achieving them.
To your good health,

Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

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