What's the secret?
conducted between 1975 and 1995
that included data from about a thousand participants over the age of 50 living in Oxford, Ohio. Subjects were asked a number of questions about their health, lives, and families, as well as about their attitude toward getting older. Although the study provided"one of the richest and most detailed perspectives on aging in late twentieth-century America," according to Levy, no one had ever followed up by recording how long the participants had lived after the completion of the study.
Other factors that many of us might assume would make a big impact on longevity were less important than beliefs about aging. Having low cholesterol and low blood pressure only added an average of four years to people's lives, not smoking added three years, and a low body mass index added just one year.Lordn / Shutterstock
"It's hard not to take in some of the negative messages about aging," says Levy. Ultimately, she believes that"the one thing [we could do to improve longevity] would be to reduce structural ageism." However, since that goal is not something people can accomplish on an individual level, she suggests that"becoming more active consumers of media" is one way to combat negative views of aging.
Medical professionals, too, could do more to encourage their patients' positive feelings about getting older."One of the ways to improve that would be to improve medical education and improve access to quality geriatrics courses, and also to add information about ageism… to become aware of when patients have been exposed to ageism, that might be impacting their health. That's something that would be great to add to medical training," Levy says.
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