Longevity Matters

Be happy. You’ll live longer. People who are optimistic and have a bright outlook on the future may live longer than pessimists, according to researchers from the Netherlands. During a nine-year study of 941 senior citizens between the ages of 65 and 85 conducted by the Psychiatric Center GGZ Delfland in Delft, it became apparent that people who had optimistic personalities were far less likely to die over the study period than people with pessimistic dispositions, reports Reuters. More…

Corrected: Stressed-out worms die young-study finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – How well you respond to stress predicts how long you will live, at least if you are a little worm, U.S. scientists reported on Monday.

Genetically identical worms responded to stress in greatly different ways — and those with more active stress reactions lived much longer than worms with less active stress proteins, the researchers found. More active stress responses suggest the animal is coping with the stress.

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Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos and colleagues, of Athens Medical School in Greece, have found that chocolate consumption led to a significant 7-percent decrease in aortic stiffness. The flexibility of arteries is a key determinant of cardiovascular health. Their work was featured in the American Journal of Hypertension, and can be read about here.

The study, published in the journal Neurology – and conducted by the National Cancer Institute – concludes that those born in January or February have the highest risk for the disease, while those born in July or August have the lowest.

Surprisingly, being left-handed or ambidextrous seems to increase the risk of brain cancer.

The study authors may next investigate infections, maternal diet, environmental toxins, and hormonal influences during pregnancy.

Is your cancer risk related to birth month? This new research study on cancer risk and the month of your birth seems to point to yes!