by Jennifer Cox Longevity My husband and I are opposites when it comes to our philosophies on life: he’s all about “work smart, not hard,” whereas I follow the adage, “good things come to those who work their buns off!”Whilemy personal opinion is that you should strike a balance between the two (a bit of work, a bit of play), research has surprisingly shown that those who work harder live longer. Guess I’ll be sticking around longer than my spouse (ha-ha, I’m kidding…). But it’s true – those who settle into retirement and complacency later in life tend to live for a shorter period of time, while those who continue to hustle and even “worry” about making deadlines, turning out work and being productive have a longer lifespan. The primary study behind this theory is one that was startedmany decades ago, in the 1920s. More than 1,520 “gifted” children were followed throughout their lives in an attempt to discover whether more work equals more years of life. Longevity experts Howard S. Friedman and LeslieMartin led the study, resulting in the book The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark EightDecade Study. Some of the most interesting findings that came from this study included: ▶▶ “The conscientious, hard-working personality trait extends life by an average of two to three years,” Friedman said, the equivalent to a 20 per cent to 30 per cent decreased risk of early death. “That’s ‘about the effect size of things we normally pay attention to, like systolic blood pressure,’ he said, referring to the life span advantage of a healthy blood pressure.” ▶▶ “People who blow their deadlines and forget their appointments tend to find themselves making an early appointment with the grim reaper. Sorting through eight decades of data shows that the reliable, more-mature-thantheir-years little boys and girls identified in the 1920s became the dependable adults who were most likely to have made it into a new century. ‘[T]he best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness – the qualities of a prudent, persistent, wellorganized person…somewhat obsessive and not at all carefree.’” ▶▶ “The benefits of a conscientious personality are obvious:These people are less likely to smoke and drink, or drive dangerously. Throughout life, conscientious people are less impulsive, and less depressed.The researchers found that the prudent died less from all causes, not just those related to dangerous habits. It appears the conscientious have higher levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin (a brain chemical boosted by antidepressants), which is linked to, the authors write, ‘many health-relevant processes throughout the body, including how much you eat and how well you sleep.’” ▶▶ Friedman and Martin say that it’s the kind of stress that matters. “The bright boys selected for the study who ended up having low-status jobs – streetcar conductor, baker, porter – and whose careers did not match their early promise were far more likely to die before age 60 than their higher-status counterparts. Success, even in challenging jobs with demanding hours and responsibility, is a tonic.” So, in the end, hard work does pay off – with added years to your life! Rather than “work themselves to death, they worked themselves to life.” So, the next time you’re grumbling over an impending deadline or a nagging to-do list, don’t think of these things as a waste of time, but rather an investment in time! Longevity andwork CSANews | SPRING 2016 | 33
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