{"id":508,"date":"2016-07-21T00:25:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T00:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshmitteldorf.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=508"},"modified":"2016-07-23T13:07:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-23T13:07:30","slug":"social-correlates-of-longevity-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/joshmitteldorf\/2016\/07\/21\/social-correlates-of-longevity-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Correlates of Longevity\u2014Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we think about things we can do to have longer, healthier lives, it\u2019s the metabolism that comes to mind\u2014diet, exercise, supplements. \u00a0It\u2019s a surprising fact that <\/i>(at least until the next generation of anti-aging technology becomes available<\/i>) the most effective things we can do are not just psychological\u2014they\u2019re social. \u00a0Perhaps because we were raised in the most pathologically individualistic culture in the history of humanity, this seems hard to take in. \u00a0The message is to embed in your community and your family, to actualize your creative potential, to love the people around you, to celebrate life and connect, only connect*.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Philosophers from Kant to Buber like to distinguish two ways that people may relate to one another. \u00a0One is utilitarian, using the person to help you make money or obtain something else that you want. \u00a0This kind of relationship needn\u2019t be sinister. \u00a0There can be cooperation and mutual benefit, but the relationship is a calculated investment for personal gain. \u00a0The second kind of relationship is a core of human friendship or love or companionship or empathy that we value for its own sake, independent of whether we can get anything out of it.<\/p>\n

Kant (paraphrased by Popper<\/a>) said, \u201cAlways recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.\u201d \u00a0Buber said<\/a>, \u201cIf I face a human being as my Thou, and say the primary word I-Thou to him, he is not\u2026He or She, bounded from every other He and She, a specific point in space and time within the net of the world;…but with no neighbour, and whole in himself, he is Thou and fills the heavens. This does not mean that nothing exists except himself. But all else lives in his light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both utilitarian relationships of power and reciprocal relationships of love can contribute to longevity. \u00a0There is a longevity bonus attached to social status and power, and a separate correlation with family, sexual contact, and loving connection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marriage<\/b><\/p>\n

The protective effects of marriage have been known a long time. \u00a0Darwin quoted William Farr\u2019s study of the French (1858), finding that marriage (except teen marriage) is associated with better health and lower mortality. \u00a0But marriage is difficult to disentangle from economics, access to health care, social standing and a host of other correlates. This paper<\/a> finds that after correcting for everything under the sun, married men have 7% lower mortality, and women 4% lower, compared to unmarried. \u00a0It\u2019s the human connection that counts. \u00a0\u201cAlthough marriage keeps people alive, it does not appear to work through a reduction of stress levels.\u201d \u00a0Two kinds of stress must be distinguished. \u00a0The stress of poverty or low social station or suffering abuse and contempt of another human is bad for your health and longevity. \u00a0But caring for others, taking on responsibility, leading an active, empowered and demanding life can be beneficial [ref<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Both women and men are at highly elevated risk for death during the months immediately following the death of a spouse [ref<\/a>].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Social correlates of telomere length<\/b><\/p>\n

It takes a long time to measure the effect of anything<\/i> on human mortality. \u00a0Elissa Epel has pioneered the use of telomere length<\/a> and telomerase activity as proxies for life expectancy. \u00a0She has found telomere loss to be associated with the bad kind of stress\u2014feeling trapped by circumstance, powerless, stuck living in a way that is not what one wants. \u00a0Worry<\/a> shortens your telomeres. \u00a0She found telomere connections to a variety of healthy living habits, including exercise, weight loss and meditation. \u00a0Suppression of telomerase can be detected from a single experience of humiliation<\/a> that is tame enough to pass muster with an ethical review board. \u00a0This study<\/a> finds that depression, anxiety and trauma leave their mark on telomere length in men but not women. \u00a0Young women also survive adolescence with more of their telomeres intact than young men. \u00a0Do men somatize their stress more than women?<\/p>\n

Epel and her mentor, Liz Blackburn, have been slow to acknowledge the (now overwhelming) evidence that telomere shortening has a causal relationship to mortality. \u00a0They write of telomere length as a \u201cmarker\u201d that tells a tale about past stresses and traumas. \u00a0They look for a proximate cause in inflammation and oxidative stress, but stop short of asking for a deeper, evolutionary significance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Parenting<\/b><\/p>\n

There have been many studies seeking to connect fertility to longevity in women. \u00a0The consensus is a small positive connection\u2014women who have more children tend to live slightly longer. \u00a0A message that stands out from this: for women, giving birth after age 40 offers a big bump in longevity, equivalent to setting your aging clock back more than 3 years<\/a>. \u00a0For fathers who have children late in life, the data is thinner, but what data I could find<\/a> indicate a benefit almost as strong. \u00a0The most relevant study I could find<\/a> was for an Amish population, \u201ca population characterized by large family sizes and close-knit familial units.\u201d \u00a0Seven children was average <\/i>\u00a0for these families. \u00a0Longevity of both mothers and fathers increased with each additional offspring, up to the 14th child. \u00a0But not beyond.<\/p>\n

Less clear than the statistics is the interpretation. In my mind, this is all about caring. \u00a0When we stay involved in our children\u2019s lives and care about them, there is a benefit for our health, mediated through neurochemistry. \u00a0Just my opinion.<\/p>\n

(One prominent study<\/a> finds a negative association between female fertility and longevity, and I have re-analyzed their data<\/a> to show a positive effect. \u00a0The study was co-authored by Tom Kirkwood, best known for the theory that the reason for aging is that the body needs to spend energy on reproduction. \u00a0You gotta wonder when the one study that marches to the beat of a different drummer is done by the person whose reputation depends on the contrarian result.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Money<\/b><\/p>\n

How could Mother Nature be so politically incorrect? \u00a0It is a sad and stubborn fact that, independent of all else, money is a strong predictor of longevity.<\/p>\n

In 1980, the poorest one tenth of Americans lived 3 years less than the richest tenth. \u00a0By 2000, that gap had widened to 5 years [ref<\/a>]. \u00a0It is wider yet today\u2014possibly as much as 14 years for males, 8 for females if this study<\/a> is to be believed.<\/p>\n

You would think there isn\u2019t much difference in access to medicine within the top 1% of family income, but even there, the rich end of the top 1% lives half a year longer than the slightly-less-rich end [ref<\/a>].<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is a psycho-social effect, connected to prestige and status. \u00a0It has little to do with access to health care. \u00a0We know this because the wealthy people in poor countries are living longer than the middle classes in wealthy countries, who have comparable incomes and perhaps better access to medical care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Art<\/b><\/p>\n

Redeeming Mother Nature\u2019s rep is this study<\/a> of the Flemish Renaissance which tells us that elite musicians and poets, though poor, lived as long as wealthy non-artists. \u00a0Maybe orchestra conductors<\/a> have just the right combination of leadership and aesthetics to maximize longevity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fame<\/b><\/p>\n

A classic study [1943<\/a>] by an Ohio Medical professor compared lifespans of historical figures in many different fields. \u00a0Musicians do better than painters. \u00a0Leaders in democracies do better than hereditary monarchs. \u00a0Philosophers live longer than poets. \u00a0The main conclusion that Lehman puts forward is that late-bloomers live longer than child prodigies**. \u00a0This has convinced me that Hillary, Bernie and The Donald don\u2019t really want to be President\u2014they\u2019re in the race for a longevity dividend.<\/p>\n

\"Longevity-Eminent\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sex<\/b><\/p>\n

Frequency of sex is a positive predictor of longevity. \u00a0The best-known study came from Caerphilly in South Wales [1997<\/a>]. \u00a0Men 45-60 who were sexually active had half the mortality rate of men who had sex less frequently. \u00a0(I\u2019ve been unable to find corresponding data for women, or more recent data for men.) \u00a0The effect seems to be more psychosocial than physiological, because the association is stronger with frequency of intercourse than with masturbation frequency. \u00a0(The article in British Medical Journal is written with a British sense of humor, and the authors make a point of debunking folk wisdom and the many religious traditions that associate orgasm with a depletion of vitality, and are especially tough on onanism.)<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s not an accident that the hormone oxytocin<\/a> is associated with youthful metabolism and is produced in response to intimacy and feelings of closeness. \u00a0Oxytocin spikes in an orgasm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Happiness<\/b><\/p>\n

In this study<\/a>, a crude measure of happiness was associated with a 20% drop in all-cause mortality. \u00a0From everything else we\u2019ve seen, this would seem to be unexpectedly low. \u00a0If happiness could be more reliably measured and separated from other variables, it might loom even larger. \u00a0\u201cFor a 70-year-old man of average health, satisfaction of one standard deviation above average promises a 20 months longer life.\u201d [1989<\/a>]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/b><\/p>\n

Tilting the odds for a long life is not just a matter of discipline and abstemious living. \u00a0A lot of the things you can do to live a long time are things you want to do, or things that will make your life better right now. \u00a0Turn off your computer and spend time with a friend.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

* \u201cOnly connect\u201d is a refrain from E.M. Forster\u2019s novel, Howard\u2019s End
\n<\/a>** Lehman emphasizes that much (but not all) of this is a selection effect: If you attained greatness at age 50, that means that you didn\u2019t die before you were 50.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The surprising fact that our bodies are genetically programmed to age and to die offers an enormous opportunity for medical intervention. It may be that therapies to slow the progress of aging need not repair or regenerate anything, but only need to interfere with an existing program of self-destruction. Mitteldorf has taught a weekly yoga class for thirty years. He is an advocate for vigorous self care, including exercise, meditation and caloric restriction. After earning a PhD in astrophysicist, Mitteldorf moved to evolutionary biology as a primary field in 1996. He has taught at Harvard, Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, LaSalle and Temple University. He is presently affiliated with MIT as a visiting scholar. In private life, Mitteldorf is an advocate for election integrity as well as public health. He is an avid amateur musician, playing piano in chamber groups, French horn in community orchestras. His two daughters are among the first children adopted from China in the mid-1980s. Much to the surprise of evolutionary biologists, genetic experiments indicate that aging has been selected as an adaptation for its own sake. This poses a conundrum: the impact of aging on individual fitness is wholly negative, so aging must be regarded as a kind of evolutionary altruism. Unlike other forms of evolutionary altruism, aging offers benefits to the community that are weak, and not well focussed on near kin of the altruist. This makes the mechanism challenging to understand and to model. more at http:\\\/\\\/mathforum.org\\\/~josh\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/AgingAdvice.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/joshmitteldorf\\\/author\\\/joshmitteldorf\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Social Correlates of Longevity\u2014Part II - Josh Mitteldorf","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/joshmitteldorf\/2016\/07\/21\/social-correlates-of-longevity-part-ii\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Social Correlates of Longevity\u2014Part II","og_description":"When we think about things we can do to have longer, healthier lives, it\u2019s the metabolism that comes to mind\u2014diet, exercise, supplements. \u00a0It\u2019s a surprising fact that (at least until the next generation of anti-aging technology becomes available) the most effective things we can do are not just psychological\u2014they\u2019re social. \u00a0Perhaps because we were raised ... 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The surprising fact that our bodies are genetically programmed to age and to die offers an enormous opportunity for medical intervention. It may be that therapies to slow the progress of aging need not repair or regenerate anything, but only need to interfere with an existing program of self-destruction. Mitteldorf has taught a weekly yoga class for thirty years. He is an advocate for vigorous self care, including exercise, meditation and caloric restriction. After earning a PhD in astrophysicist, Mitteldorf moved to evolutionary biology as a primary field in 1996. He has taught at Harvard, Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, LaSalle and Temple University. He is presently affiliated with MIT as a visiting scholar. In private life, Mitteldorf is an advocate for election integrity as well as public health. He is an avid amateur musician, playing piano in chamber groups, French horn in community orchestras. His two daughters are among the first children adopted from China in the mid-1980s. Much to the surprise of evolutionary biologists, genetic experiments indicate that aging has been selected as an adaptation for its own sake. This poses a conundrum: the impact of aging on individual fitness is wholly negative, so aging must be regarded as a kind of evolutionary altruism. Unlike other forms of evolutionary altruism, aging offers benefits to the community that are weak, and not well focussed on near kin of the altruist. 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