Home > Articles

This chapter is from the book

Three Things You Can Do Now to Live Longer

Let’s start by discussing three things you can do now to live well and live longer.

Reduce stress! Recent research has found that the effects of stress may be much more ominous than previously thought. Stress may very well be the single factor between living a healthy and long life or a miserable and stunted one. Stress is not just something that wears us down and makes our muscles tighten up; it actually changes our internal biological systems.

Take just one system—the immune system. Studies have found that chronic stress, such as the kind endured by taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s disease, increases the level of cytokines called Interleukin-6. Normally, the IL-6 cytokines are good for you. Think of cytokines as proteins that act like little traffic cops, directing immune-responsive cells to places where you’ve been infected or injured. The IL-6 traffic cops help promote inflammation, a beneficial reaction as you deal with infection and trauma.

The problem is that when you’re not injured or infected, you don’t want these extra guys coursing through your body. They start whistling for these pro-inflammatory cells that have nowhere to go and pretty soon, you have a low-grade buzz of inflammation. Chronic inflammation is bad for you. It promotes muscle weakness. Studies found patients with elevated levels of IL-6 were more likely to be disabled later on because their muscles atrophied easier. Stressed patients with higher levels of IL-6 in their bodies had a harder time absorbing the full effects of a flu vaccine, making them more at risk for infection. Their bodies also took longer to heal from wounds. Chronic inflammation is linked to osteoporosis, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. That’s why your dentist is always looking out for gingivitis—you don’t want a low-grade buzz of inflammation because it can cause a whole host of problems.

Stress, whether temporary or chronic, suppresses the body’s defenses against infection and malignant growth. It makes you at risk for diseases down the road. You can eat oat bran for breakfast and run five miles a day, but if you’re stressed out, you’re not getting the full benefits of eating right and exercising.

Scientists aren’t sure why stress elevates these IL-6 cytokines, thereby creating this chronic state of inflammation. But they do know that as you age, your ability to regulate these cytokines is diminished. It’s much easier for them to go wayward when you’re stressed.

Your job is not only to go get a massage every time you feel your shoulders tighten, but to also think about getting rid of or blocking the chronic stress before it happens. We’re talking big changes. Perhaps you need to learn to be a more optimistic person, therefore allowing you to cope better with challenges.

Or maybe you need to get out of an unhappy relationship. Or maybe you need to prepare for long-term care for your parents. These are the things that will matter for your health as much as exercising and eating right.

It’s incredible to think that stress, which isn’t something you can touch or see, can wreak such havoc on your body. We dive into more detail later about other ways stress can affect your body, including causing declines in natural killer cells and creating what researchers call an "allostatic load" that makes you more susceptible to diseases.

But for now, make it a commitment to reduce stress in your life. Think of it not just as creating a happier you, but also as a way of adding years to your life.

The older you are, the healthier you’ll be? Most people fear growing older because they’re worried about developing diseases that will ravage their bodies and minds. The statistics can be frightening—after age 40, your chance of developing chronic illnesses increases dramatically. Health screenings become more important than ever. Chances are, by the time you’ve reached 50 or so, you’ll probably know several close friends who’ve been diagnosed with cancer, suffered a heart attack, or developed diabetes. Or maybe it will be you.

There is a bright side to this. Each year that passes disease-free increases your chances of living longer in the future. It’s what statisticians call conditional life expectancy—the number of years more you’ll live based on your current age. Remember that life expectancy now for a man in America is 75 years. That’s at birth—just out of the starting gate. Consider that if you’re a man and you’ve reached age 50 in good shape, your life expectancy is actually going to increase more than three years to 78.5. If you’re lucky or smart and hit 65 in good condition, you’ll likely reach nearly 82! The news is just as good for women; if you reach 65, you’re likely going to outlive your man by three years.

Rather than dread reaching, say, age 65, you should be proud of it. That means you’ve just given yourself a huge chance to make it to 80 without any major problems. Ditto for reaching 85. Or 90. Or beyond. It’s the people who hit 50 and suffer a heart attack that have to worry. If you’re 75 and having a ball, you’ve got it made.

Some scientists link this phenomenon to James Fries’ "compression of morbidity" hypothesis, which basically theorizes that as you reach the upper limits of your lifespan, diseases tend to be compressed to the last years of life. In other words, if you haven’t developed diabetes by 65, chances are that you are not going to develop it until you’re very, very, very old. Or maybe not at all. People studying centenarians who carry the APOE4 gene for Alzheimer’s find that the risk of developing the disease falls dramatically after age 85. That’s right; the older the patients are, the less likely they’ll get dementia! If the patient hasn’t developed it before 85, chances are pretty slim he’ll develop it later, even if he carries the gene.

Your goal is not to get depressed with each birthday, but to celebrate the passing of another year. A birthday just means you’ve given yourself one more extension to live a longer and healthier life. Celebrate it!

If you want to age well, it is best to live in the U.S. or another wealthy nation. You’ve already done something wonderful for your longevity if you live in this country.

Sometimes, we take for granted that life expectancies are going up because we have access to a lot of medicine, clean water, flushing toilets, and well-stocked supermarkets. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, life expectancy is still a short 37 to 45 years because of violence, conflict, food shortages, poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water, and diseases such as AIDS. In Russia, life expectancy reversed course between 1989 and 1994 for men, falling seven years, owing to homicide, drugs, poor diet, and alcoholism.

Even with all we have access to, we’re not number one in terms of life expectancy. Other countries, such as Japan, France, Norway, and Italy have longer living people, and it is there we’ve tried to find the secrets to aging well. Is it their diets? Their exercise regimes? Their culture? We’re still trying to figure it out.

Living in America gives us some fundamental tools to help us reach old age gracefully. The U.S. has great medical care. Americans have plenty of material possessions, which though they don’t directly make us live longer, do offer us a more comfortable living. We have access to the finest education in the world, an important aspect to aging well.

Most importantly, we have control over our lives, which makes a huge difference in how well we age. In the exhaustive, 10-year landmark study funded by the MacArthur Foundation, "Midlife in the U.S.," researchers found that control "was associated with better health and well-being for adults of all ages." Americans have the freedom to age the way they want to—in some other countries without free societies, the concept of "aging well" is not really an option.

Remember that over 70 percent of the aging process is under your control. Having control can make a world of difference in your life and how well you age. Imagine if you didn’t have any control over your aging—and think about how lucky you are that we do.

Taking control of aging means tackling each section of your life and making sure it’s in the best possible condition: your body, your money, your mind, and, for lack of a better word, your soul. These separate areas of your life work in concert as you age. Your job is to make sure they are primed. If you do this, you give yourself the best chance to live a happy, healthy, and long life.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020