Live Happily for 9 more years

Happiness

There are two parts to this story. The first part is about happiness in old age. The second part is about living 9 years longer. Let's start with happiness. 

According to researchers in the United Kingdom and America, they studied more than two million people in 80 countries and found that our happiness follows a U-shaped pattern. We are happier at the beginning and at the end (in our 50's) of our life and not so happy in between. 

 With the happiness at old age in mind let's talk about living an extra nine more years. Researchers at King's College London and in the United States studied aging in 2401 twins by analyzing telomeres. Telomeres shorten with age, leaving people increasingly prone to cell damage, which causes disease. They found that on average the telomeres were significantly longer in the more active twin. According to Dr.Lynn Cherkes from the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit at King's College London, she said that the difference in telomere length between the most active subjects and the inactive subjects corresponds to around nine years of biological aging. How about that? When you are active physically you can live nine years longer and on top of that, the extra years will also bring you happiness.

Image source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ulterior-motives/201809/happiness-and-social-interaction