“You can see how people can start to differ in their health trajectory in their 30s, so that by taking good care of yourself early in life you can set yourself on a better course for aging. “Aging is a continuous process,” Waldinger said. Since aging starts at birth, people should start taking care of themselves at every stage of life, the researchers say. Some of our octogenarian couples could bicker with each other day in and day out, but as long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn’t take a toll on their memories.” “And those good relationships, they don’t have to be smooth all the time. “Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies they protect our brains,” said Waldinger in his TED talk. In part of a recent study, researchers found that women who felt securely attached to their partners were less depressed and more happy in their relationships two-and-a-half years later, and also had better memory functions than those with frequent marital conflicts. Researchers also found that those with strong social support experienced less mental deterioration as they aged. “It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.”Īccording to the study, those who lived longer and enjoyed sound health avoided smoking and alcohol in excess. Those who kept warm relationships got to live longer and happier, said Waldinger, and the loners often died earlier. Those who had unhappy marriages felt both more emotional and physical pain. Part of a study found that people who had happy marriages in their 80s reported that their moods didn’t suffer even on the days when they had more physical pain. The researchers also found that marital satisfaction has a protective effect on people’s mental health. He recorded his TED talk, titled “What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness,” in 2015, and it has been viewed 13,000,000 times. “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. “The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” said Robert Waldinger, director of the study, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Over the years, researchers have studied the participants’ health trajectories and their broader lives, including their triumphs and failures in careers and marriage, and the finding have produced startling lessons, and not only for the researchers. More than a decade ago, researchers began including wives in the Grant and Glueck studies. In the 1970s, 456 Boston inner-city residents were enlisted as part of the Glueck Study, and 40 of them are still alive. Some participants went on to become successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and others ended up as schizophrenics or alcoholics, but not on inevitable tracks.ĭuring the intervening decades, the control groups have expanded. In addition, scientists eventually expanded their research to include the men’s offspring, who now number 1,300 and are in their 50s and 60s, to find out how early-life experiences affect health and aging over time. (Women weren’t in the original study because the College was still all male.) Kennedy and longtime Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. Among the original recruits were eventual President John F. Of the original Harvard cohort recruited as part of the Grant Study, only 19 are still alive, all in their mid-90s. When scientists began tracking the health of 268 Harvard sophomores in 1938 during the Great Depression, they hoped the longitudinal study would reveal clues to leading healthy and happy lives.Īfter following the surviving Crimson men for nearly 80 years as part of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the world’s longest studies of adult life, researchers have collected a cornucopia of data on their physical and mental health.
Robert plaster foundation series#
Second in an occasional series on how Harvard researchers are tackling the problematic issues of aging.
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