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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

#61

Post by geden »

mythrwy wrote: post #52
derekp7 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish there were good community organizations that bring people together like a church, but weren't religious based. I guess that's what organizations such as the Moose lodge, or Lions club attempt to fill?

Agreed. Religion is a non starter for me but I would like to find some community groups doing good things with good people. I know about meetup.com etc but I'd like to have ties with something a little deeper. Preferably something without political and especially without supernatural overtones. I see there being a big need for this in the modern world.

I find that sport fills this function for me. After being a very cerebral, non sporty child I was lucky enough to find sports I really enjoyed (badminton & tennis) in my late teens.

When I've moved from city to city I've joined a good local badminton club and played in local leagues. With that has come vigorous exercise AND social interaction. Latterly its also brought the opportunity to contribute to local community through coaching my club's juniors. I find this challenging in a very rewarding way.

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

#62

Post by kbart »

amenghra wrote: post #49
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…

By spending most of your time at home, your immune system probably dials down. I noticed I was falling sick when I took a short break from work and was mostly home. Everything returned to normal once I resumed my normal work schedule.

You should probably check your home for toxic materials, especially if that's an old building. Short stay at home shouldn't affect your health or more so immune system.

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

#63

Post by Emilie656 »

Im making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do...

>http://ow.ly/iBXm30dNtIZ

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

#64

Post by MarkSweep »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #58

Don't worry too much this study is bullshit Step 1 - be an adult white male graduated at the beginning of an unprecedented and unique economic boom Step 2 - graduate out of the most prominent college of the period Step 3 - watch your asset grow themselves Step 4 - enjoy the life without never have to worry about job security, housing, spending power Yeah no shit sherlock. I guess being upper middle class does wonder…

From the article:

"During the intervening decades, the control groups have expanded. In the 1970s, 456 Boston inner-city residents were enlisted as part of the Glueck Study, and 40 of them are still alive."

"Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants."

The study control for the effects of class. That refutes some of your assertions.

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

#65

Post by Emilie656 »

xor1 wrote: post #48
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…

After college, I had a NEET period of roughly 6 months. I would see friends maybe once every other week because I was somewhat depressed about not being able to find a job and had to be dragged out of the house, and the only people I spoke to regularly in person were my parents. I went to my first meetup (for programming) towards the end of that period before getting my first job, and I felt all of the stuff you desc…

Im making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do...

>http://ow.ly/iBXm30dNtIZ

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

#66

Post by LoSboccacc »

MarkSweep wrote: post #64
LoSboccacc wrote: post #58

Don't worry too much this study is bullshit Step 1 - be an adult white male graduated at the beginning of an unprecedented and unique economic boom Step 2 - graduate out of the most prominent college of the period Step 3 - watch your asset grow themselves Step 4 - enjoy the life without never have to worry about job security, housing, spending power Yeah no shit sherlock. I guess being upper middle class does wonder…

From the article: "During the intervening decades, the control groups have expanded. In the 1970s, 456 Boston inner-city residents were enlisted as part of the Glueck Study, and 40 of them are still alive." "Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true acros…

With baby boomers, sure, the second most privileged generation on earth.

Hint: it's hard to develop a social life working 60 hours a week, vice versa, people that can afford a good living standard are more likely to have the time to socialize.

This study does nothing to verify if their ipothesys is correlation, causation or coincidence (because, let's be honest, 500 ppl and without a control group?)

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

#67

Post by dang »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #58

Don't worry too much this study is bullshit Step 1 - be an adult white male graduated at the beginning of an unprecedented and unique economic boom Step 2 - graduate out of the most prominent college of the period Step 3 - watch your asset grow themselves Step 4 - enjoy the life without never have to worry about job security, housing, spending power Yeah no shit sherlock. I guess being upper middle class does wonder…

Please don't post snarky internet insta-dismissals to HN. They greatly lower the quality of discussion, even when they have some good points to make. There are several such posts in this thread and that's a problem.

The entire genre of internet comments that dismiss the life-work of others with a contemptuous hand-wave is problematic. Critique is good, but it should seriously engage with what it is criticizing. That takes effort, for which nastiness is an ugly substitute.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14816358 and marked it off-topic.

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

#69

Post by zdkl »

mmel wrote: post #45
BatFastard wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not too late! Socialize more, exercise everyday, and take something for depression! Learn new things, I had a rough spell a few years ago which took its toll. Now what I find is I have to walk the razors edge everyday. Make sure I sleep enough, eat right (low carb and fasting), exercise twice a day. If I dont I start to lose the edge.

>"Take something for depression" What happy pills do you recommend?

No. Pills.

For real, I'm not trying to be cute. Unless you're pronounced clinically depressed by a couple doctors, one should avoid the official benzo & related "happy pills".

One thing that might help, is try to make some hippy friends. You're not expected to become one of them, but they have a lot to share, wink wink.

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

#70

Post by dang »

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 sort of snarky comment that dispenses with the life work of others by means of internet clichés is the sort of thing for which pg coined the term "middlebrow dismissal". Perhaps you really do know better than specialists who worked in a field for decades, but if so, you're doing your superior knowledge an injustice by presenting it so basely. We're sincerely hoping to do better than that in this community, and would appreciate it if you'd join us in the effort.

More at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14818590.

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