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forever young: 4 surprising ways to increase longevity

research continues to search for new ways to utilize the proverbial “fountain of youth” to extend life.

by angelica bottaro

apr 25 2024
read time 3 minute read
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the act of enjoying music alone is great for mental health and feelings of well-being, but it’s also the connection to others and mental stimulation provided at a gig that proves to be beneficial for longevity. getty images
it’s no secret that eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercise, and keeping stress levels down will increase your odds of making it well into your golden years. but if you plan to live a good life for as long as possible, those aren’t the only things you can do to add years to your life—and life to your years.
research continues to search for new ways to utilize the proverbial “fountain of youth” to extend life. in the process, medical scientists have found some pretty unique and surprising ways to increase your longevity outside of simple 2022年世界杯名单猜测.

go to concerts

music and health go hand in hand. music therapy is now a viable and widely accepted complementary treatment for people with various conditions, including stroke, dementia, parkinson’s disease, and mood disorders.

research out of london, uk, has found that going to a concert of your choice once every two weeks can extend your life expectancy by as many as nine years. all it takes is a simple 20 minutes of listening to music to increase your wellbeing by 21 per cent. comparatively, the study looked at the same feelings of well-being measured against 20 minutes of yoga and walking your dog, and unfortunately for your instructor and canine friend, concerts had them trumped.

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how does it do it? well, the act of enjoying music alone is great for mental health and feelings of well-being, but it’s also the connection to others and mental stimulation provided at a gig that proves to be beneficial for longevity.

get married

taking the big plunge into matrimonial life isn’t as commonplace as it once was, and gone are the days when it was expected that you say “i do” by a certain age. that said, if you can find someone you truly love, getting married and being in a committed and loving relationship is a great way to extend your life by a few years.

research shows that when people are happy in long-term relationships, their mortality risk is lowered by a whopping 49 per cent. according to medical scientists working on the study, as reported in the washington post, the health benefits of being happy and in love is “comparable to those found for dietary recommendations like consumption of fruit and vegetables.”

it can also reduce your risk of developing diseases that severely impact your quality of life as you age, such as alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, and can lower the risk of developing pain or negative consequences from certain treatments, including breast cancer treatment and heart bypass surgery.  the beneficial health effects of a happy marriage are even more pronounced in men.

kiss your partner goodbye

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canadian society for exercise physiology

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speaking of happy relationships, another aspect of living life as a couple is being together—and being apart. research conducted in germany in the 80s found that husbands who kissed their wives before going to work every day lived an average of five years longer than those who didn’t.
the results were based on the fact that, typically, if you leave the house and don’t give your spouse a proper kiss, you are more likely to be in a fight or not as close as you once were. because of that, higher levels of stress and higher scores of depression and dissatisfaction were likely to be present.
the research also found that kissing before leaving for work was akin to earning more, and not kissing before work increased the possibility of getting in a car accident on the way to the office by as much as 50 per cent.

mature slower

growing pains can hit hard, but if you can manage to stay young at heart, your physical health will thank you. studies investigating longevity looked at how old people feel in relation to their lifespan. the results showed that those who felt younger than their actual age lived longer than those who felt older than their actual age or the same as their actual age.

it all came down to habits. people who felt younger than they actually are were more likely to engage in healthier habits that affect heart health and other parameters because when people feel or see themselves as older, they are more likely to give up on the “young” activities, such as regular exercise, that keep them alive for longer.

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so, if you want to have a longer life, focusing on how much music, love, and childlike wonder you can engage in are all great ways to do it.
angelica bottaro
angelica bottaro

angelica bottaro is the lead editor at healthing.ca, and has been content writing for over a decade, specializing in all things health. her goal as a health journalist is to bring awareness and information to people that they can use as an additional tool toward their own optimal health.

read more about the author

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