Stay calm, busy and organized. If you do, you may live a few more years than your anxious, depressed and angry peers, according to new findings from the National Institute on Aging.
An NIA team analyzed questionnaires from 2,359 healthy people in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which began in 1958. The team found that those who scored above average for emotional stability, for staying active physically and mentally and for conscientiousness lived on average two or three years longer than those with lower scores. NIA researcher Antonio Terracciano says it’s not clear why those traits make a difference in longevity.
The findings were reported in the July/August Psychosomatic Medicine.
Patricia Barry is a senior editor at the AARP Bulletin.
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