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80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

news.harvard.edu

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Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#31

Post by coldtea »

throwawayfeel wrote: post #29
scottLobster wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like you fit the study's findings quite well actually: "The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health." You can be surrounded by "caring" family and friends that you don't have a lot in common with, and that can be miserable. Getting determined but bad/outdated advice from parents is a classic and widespread example. It's not th…

I have an anecdote of this from literally yesterday(and it's personal enough to be a throwaway). Status from my 20s to early 30s: at home, occasional small gigs, not much steady work or career prospects. I got badgered with "we worry about you" or "maybe you should get a second job" all the time. Status as of yesterday when I reported that I had successfully speculated several hundred thousand dollars through multi-y…

>Status as of yesterday when I reported that I had successfully speculated several hundred thousand dollars through multi-year cryptocurrency trades: Wow, that's great, you should diversify your wealth and marry someone now. The dinner table conversation was relaxed for once.

Don't know about marriage, but definitely diversify your wealth...

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#32

Post by coldtea »

aschearer wrote: post #9

If you like this you may also enjoy "The Village Effect" by Susan Pinker[1]. In the book the author documents various ways in which social connectedness impacts our well being. As this article and book say "loneliness kills", but what does that mean for those of us who want to live long and healthy lives? Do we need to start scheduling social time alongside gym time? Will a hug a day keep the doctor away? Should we j…

>As this article and book say "loneliness kills", but what does that mean for those of us who want to live long and healthy lives? Do we need to start scheduling social time alongside gym time?

No, we need to stop scheduling things and embrace a less forced, more natural, community-centric, living.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#33

Post by ams6110 »

judah wrote: post #11
aschearer wrote: post #9

If you like this you may also enjoy "The Village Effect" by Susan Pinker[1]. In the book the author documents various ways in which social connectedness impacts our well being. As this article and book say "loneliness kills", but what does that mean for those of us who want to live long and healthy lives? Do we need to start scheduling social time alongside gym time? Will a hug a day keep the doctor away? Should we j…

>> "Should we join organized religions or get married strictly for the health benefits?" As a married religious person who was once single and not so religious, I can attest that faith and marriage have generally made me happier. Given the choice again, I'd utilize both regardless of health benefits. I do wonder if that general happiness factor contributes to better health in indirect ways.

Of course the risk of marriage is that if the marriage falls apart it can cause devastating unhappiness for a long time, that you may never really recover from.

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#34

Post by biofox »

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

You just described my life with uncanny accuracy.

I have suspected for some time that my problems were due to social isolation, but I have been too apathetic to make an effort to do anything. You've just given me the motivation to change that. Thank you!

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#35

Post by [deleted] »

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

What I take from this article is that social interaction is extremely important to ones health, and it's something that we largely taken for granted. In the age of computers and secluded work environments, I think we need to be aware of the effect that even casual interaction has on our mental and physical health. I have some personal/anecdotal experience which back this research up and affirms my belief that communi…

[deleted]

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#37

Post by beambot »

zeteo wrote: post #17

This reads like someone consciously decided "Hey, let's build the ultimate poster boy for bad statistical studies!". 1. Sample bias : "Why just study WEIRD [1] subjects? Let's do male Harvard graduates!" (Yes, half the study included inner city men, and one eighth of the duration featured women. It's still super heavily biased towards Harvard men.) 2. Correlation is not causation : "Hmm, health is correlated with rel…

Have you ever tried recruiting subjects for a short-term social sciences study? It's not easy! Now do one for 80 years... Damn near impossible!

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#38

Post by fernly »

I find this perfectly credible because almost exactly the same conclusions were stated by Putnam in the classic _Bowling Alone_ [1]. A couple of pull-quotes from that,

> Dozens of painstaking studies... have established beyond reasonable doubt that ... [t]he more integrated we are with our community, the less likely we are to experience colds, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression and premature death of all sorts...

> ... the positive contributions to health made by social integration and social support rival in strength the detrimental contributions of ... risk factors like ... smoking, obesity, elevated blood pressure, and physical inactivity.

> ...as a rough rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half.

Putnam was surveying a large number of studies, not just the Harvard one.

[1] Putnam, Robert D, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community; https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Commu...

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#39

Post by rdudekul »

In Summary:

Our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health.

Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed.

Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.

Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies; they protect our brains.

The key to healthy aging is relationships...

Re: 80-year Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

#40

Post by Gatsky »

zeteo wrote: post #17

This reads like someone consciously decided "Hey, let's build the ultimate poster boy for bad statistical studies!". 1. Sample bias : "Why just study WEIRD [1] subjects? Let's do male Harvard graduates!" (Yes, half the study included inner city men, and one eighth of the duration featured women. It's still super heavily biased towards Harvard men.) 2. Correlation is not causation : "Hmm, health is correlated with rel…

This is an unfair and reflexive assessment. The study has clear and obvious limitations, and does not pretend otherwise.

You are also acting like the results of modern psychology studies are somehow superior or more useful. Where did you get that outlandish notion from exactly? Every such study I read about seems to go through a cycle of hyped up result (eg power posing) to TED talk to book deal to failure to replicate to finally working out these results are either irrelevant, invalid or just fake.

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