Characteristics Of People Who Live A Long Time

March 28, 2011

Interview with Leslie Martin, PhD, author of the book The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study

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Mike Carruthers:
You eat right, exercise, take vitamins; you do all kinds of things in order to lead a healthy life, however…

Leslie Martin, PhD:
A lot of the little picky things that people think are so important really don’t matter so much. If you focus on some of the broad traits and behaviors many of the other pieces will fall into place.
 

Leslie Martin, author of the book The Longevity Project, says in fact  according to an exhaustive, long-term study the one trait that will help ensure a long life is conscientiousness.

Conscientious people are prudent their responsible and these individuals set in motion a pattern that benefited them over their life span. Not only did they have better health behaviors but they tended to gravitate into more stable jobs, into stable marriages, and so on.

The thought of living a conscientious life may sound a little boring.

What we actually found was that the conscientious individuals, because they were on top of things and they were organized and responsible, they had a lot of opportunities that came their way and so they really often lived quite exciting and enjoyable lives.

Optimism plays a role in longevity but not the way you probably think.

What we found is that if you’re facing a crisis it really is good to be an optimist. But if you are approaching every life decision with the idea that nothing bad will happen, you know, forget the flu, shot, and don’t worry about the seat belt or the speed limit - that cumulatively creates risks. 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here