Forget about the pills and expensive diets!
The key to longevity if you’re middle-aged is to simply have fun, say experts.
British scientists have found that over-50s who consistently enjoy life cut their risk of dying in the next seven years by a quarter.
A team from University College London tracked more than 9,000 men and women in their 50s and 60s living in England.
Every two years between 2002 and 2006, the volunteers were asked questions about their enjoyment of life, including how much they enjoyed the company of others and how much they enjoyed daily activities.
Almost a quarter of participants reported no enjoyment during any of the three occasions they were questioned, 20 per cent reported enjoyment on one of the three, 22 per cent on two occasions and 34 per cent on all three.
Over the next seven years, to 2013, 1,310 of the participants died.
Those who reported a life full of enjoyment at all three assessments were 24 per cent less likely to die during the follow-up period compared with those who didn’t.
And those who said they enjoyed life on two occasions had a 17 per cent reduced risk.
The researchers suspect this may be because someone’s general mood can alter the levels of harmful and beneficial hormones in their body.
Simply being happy reduces stress and anxiety hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can be a burden on the heart and raise blood pressure.
Previous studies have found those who are less stressed have lower cholesterol levels, are less prone to inflammation, have a better immune response and higher levels of antioxidants in the blood.
As well as this, if you are miserable, you are more likely to smoke and drink to unhealthy levels.
The authors, writing in the British Medical Journal, said they could not be sure there was a direct biological link between happiness and mortality, as their study was merely observational. But they said these two main factors could be at play.
‘Firstly, enjoyment of life might exert an influence through associations with healthy lifestyle,’ they wrote.
‘Physical activity, not smoking, and healthy diet have been related to positive wellbeing, while healthcare and self-care behaviours might also be relevant. Secondly ... subjective wellbeing has been correlated with low concentrations of cortisol in everyday life, with low levels of inflammatory markers in some studies, and with changes in expression of genes regulating inflammation and antibody synthesis.’
Those who stay positive may also get more sleep, they said, which has a beneficial impact on immune and metabolic systems.
‘These processes might contribute to a broad range of health outcomes,’ the UCL team concluded.
The findings come after a study published last week by the Harvard School of Public Health found that optimists lived longer.
The scientists found that having an optimistic outlook was linked to a significantly reduced risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and infection.