Living Longer

[8ways2]

What do you guys think of this article?

 

 

http://the8ways2.com/2014/08/06/8ways2-live-longer/

 

What do you think we fail to do as members of the church?

[The Folk Prophet]

I'm not sure I'm behind the 6th, 7th and 8th ideas as general advice to everyone. Some people revel in stress. Some people don't have a lot of need or feel it's appropriate to laugh too much. And the complimenting people thing is great, but I don't see how that will make one live longer.

 

Just my thoughts.

[pam]

I fixed the link.  You had to copy and paste it to get it to work.

[SpiritDragon]

I think the article brings up some interesting ideas that are certainly good lifestyle behaviours, however none of them are proven to extend lifespan. Exercise and stress reduction can certainly play a role in avoiding premature death.. which is a subtle difference to extending life and perhaps nit-picky. More importantly they promote a better quality of life.

 

The main thing that has been shown to extend life that can be duplicated is to restrict calories while still getting adequate nutrition. Theoretically exercise can cause this same effect by creating a calorie deficit, but it isn't considered a fact.

[pam]

There have been a lot of studies done that show that laughing can add years to your lifespan.

[SpiritDragon]

There have been a lot of studies done that show that laughing can add years to your lifespan.

 

Can you reference one?  :)

[The Folk Prophet]

The main thing that has been shown to extend life that can be duplicated is to restrict calories while still getting adequate nutrition. Theoretically exercise can cause this same effect by creating a calorie deficit, but it isn't considered a fact.

 

I find that interesting that it isn't considered a fact. If you exercise, you need more calories to get adequate nutrition. Seems fairly obvious to me.

[The Folk Prophet]

There have been a lot of studies done that show that laughing can add years to your lifespan.

 

That may be true. But they cannot possibly be reliable. How can you have a reliable study to show that someone who laughs more often is likely to live longer? Even if you watched a billion people daily and tracked every time they laughed, and then saw that those who laughed more seemed to live longer, it would still be entirely inconclusive because there are way too many variables. Of course, legitimately tracking how often people laugh throughout their lives, even for a single person, is practically impossible.

[8ways2]

Like I mentioned in the article it releases natural feel good hormones.  Which works to lower stress hormones.  Heart attacks and strokes have been associated with chronic stress on the body.  In addition laughter increases the function of blood vessels, lowering blood pressure.  These are just a few.

 

The health benefits are clear.

[The Folk Prophet]

Like I mentioned in the article it releases natural feel good hormones.  Which works to lower stress hormones.  Heart attacks and strokes have been associated with chronic stress on the body.  In addition laughter increases the function of blood vessels, lowering blood pressure.  These are just a few.

 

The health benefits are clear.

 

You mean laughter, right?

 

There's a logical fallacy herein. Laughter is not always a result of mirth. But...

 

I'm not anti-laughter or something. I don't see laughter as some sort of to-be-sought cure for health, mental or physical. "Go see a funny movie," doesn't strike me as the best of the "good, better, best" approach to life. Moreover, laughter seems more of an indication of healthy living than a means to it. Someone who never laughs is likely struggling with deeper issues. A suggestion to laugh more doesn't cut it. Dealing with the deeper issues would naturally lead to more laughter.

 

As I said, just my thoughts.

[pam]

Can you reference one?  :)

Not the definitive studies.  I've just seen numerous articles that allude to it.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/want-to-live-longer-carry-on-laughing-1097285.html

[SpiritDragon]

I find that interesting that it isn't considered a fact. If you exercise, you need more calories to get adequate nutrition. Seems fairly obvious to me.

 

Hi TFP, perhaps I didn't convey the message in words that I had in my head. You have likely noticed that I'm not an English major so sentence structure is not my strong suit. I can see how my format could be misleading. It is a fact that exercise uses calories and increases nutritional need, it just isn't as sure a thing that burning calories has the same lifespan extending capabilities as not eating the calories in the first place.

 

This is largely because the theory surrounding why limited caloric intake expands life is based on the idea of a slower metabolic rate. You'll notice most magazines and popular press push the idea of revving up your metabolism, which is essentially saying you want to increase the rate your body has chemical reactions and compounds turn-over... which on its face appears to be advantageous if you're trying to transform your body as fast as possible, but it also suggests that the body is aging faster. So the theory goes that individuals with a slower metabolic rate will age more slowly because they aren't turning everything over as fast. A natural consequence of lower caloric intake is a slower metabolism, the dieters supposed worst enemy. Thus the theory holds that this will slow the aging process. If you are still metabolizing those calories, but doing so through exercise it is less clear that the end balance is as important to extending life as not metabolizing them in the first place.

 

To my knowledge the only part that is known for certain is that in repeatable rodent studies and (I think I recall) observational human studies those who eat the least while getting adequate nutrition live the longest.

[SpiritDragon]

Not the definitive studies.  I've just seen numerous articles that allude to it.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/want-to-live-longer-carry-on-laughing-1097285.html

 

That is all I'm saying too. It is common knowledge, conventional wisdom... whatever you want to call it - a well promoted idea that laughter is the best medicine. I don't dispute it is good for a person either, I was simply stating in direct response to the question of what I think of the article, that it lacks the stamp of FACT.  :)

[annewandering]

Why do we want to live longer? I would be overjoyed to die today. 

[Over43]

For those of you who enjoy laughter, and think it might help you live long, research laughter yoga. Then go watch the Stooges. Also research Gabor Matte and his studies on stress. Will laughter stop all heart attacks? No, but less stress might stop a few.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Over43