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The Longevity Project actually started in 1921 when Lewis Terman at
Stanford recruited over 1500 kids, boys and girls, to be part
of this study. He planned to follow them into early adulthood to see
if they grew up to be well-adjusted, you know, thriving people. He actually ended up studying
them until he died. And we picked up the study about twenty years ago, and
have been trying to see who lives long and who dies young, why some people stay
healthy,
and why some people become ill.
We found in fact that, you know how you would always hear, "take it easy, don't work so
hard, don't stress yourself."
We found that people didn't work themselves to death. They really worked themselves to life.
The people who were committed to their careers,
worked hard, stayed involved, and succeeded in their careers actually stayed healthy and
lived long. Because how many times you hear of somebody that they have been working all
their life and everyone is like, "retire!" And then they retire,
and they die soon thereafter because they don't have- -well because they lose their
social ties, they lose their friends, and they lose their reason to get up in the
morning. So it's important. If you like your job, keep working.
Well, exercise is good if you like it, but we say
don't try to-everyone doesn't have to be out there running marathons or going to the
gym if they hate it. Stay active, it can be walking, it can be cooking, it can be
anything that gets you up and out of your chair. You don't have to be a marathon runner. So if you
are a marathoner and you want to be a marathoner then it helps you. Right. We're absolutely not saying that
you should stop doing something you love, and if it's vigorous activity,
that's awesome. But if you hate it, you're not going to stick to it, and doing something
that's a little less rigorous that you really like is going to be better.
Well it depends on men or women. Generally men who are married and in a good marriage,
they live longer.
Women, not necessarily the case. Women who got divorced often thrived and
lived quite long. What's kind of interesting Leslie, and depressing for women, is
when you get divorced,
if men remarry it will lengthen their lives if women remarry it will-
It doesn't do much for them. I don't think that's depressing at all. I think that's
actually great. I mean, there are a lot of women that I think feel like, "Oh my life will be incomplete
this isn't going to be good." And no!
If you have some good friends, and you have stuff you like to do, do it. You don't need
a man.
The Longevity Project doesn't burden you with endless lists of things to do to
lead a long and healthy life.
In fact, it shows that certain simple straightforward patterns can be
developed, that anybody can develop, and once you get on the right pattern,
you're much more likely to live a long and healthy life.