Research References for the How to Live Forever Infographic

Thanks to anonymous tipster Private Aye-Aye, I was able to contact Lauren Streib, the researcher who had pulled together the data that went into this infographic from Newsweek. And she very kindly replied to my request for research article links! With her permission, Im posting them here for you r edjimafication. First of all, apparently most of the lifestyle points were taken from the book The Longevity Project by Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin. (Any of the following bullet pointswithout journal references likely come from that book). (EDIT: Hey, cool! Dr. Friedman commented about this post See the Disqus section below!) Female and Still Have Ovaries: According to a study at Purdue University in 2009, female dogs that kept their ovaries consistently lived longer, echoing the Nurses Health Studypublished by the John Wayne Cancer Institute. Mother younger than 25 when you were born: A study published by the University of Chicagos Center on Aging concluded that being born to a young mother is the major predictor of human longevity. A person with a birth mother younger than 25 is twice as likely to reach age 100. Eat 25% fewer calories than recommended: Numerous studies have found that restricting an animals calories by 25 to 30 percent can extend their lifespan. A five-year trial called CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Restricted Intake of Energy), which involves 250 healthy volunteers, ages 25 to 45, assigned to either restrict their calories by 25 percent or be part of a control group, has already produced some interesting data. For instance, calorie restriction reduces insulin levels, core body temperature, energy expenditure and DNA damage. It can also increase cellular resistance to stress proteins. Brush/Floss, 2 cups of tea, Exercise moderately, Love your job, Not drink soda, Started formal schooling after age 6: Referenced in the Longevity Project. (Bonus:Taking a calcium supplement and not smoking (duh!) also helps, but these were not included in the infographic. ) Live in a Right-Wing Dictatorship: A University of Michigan study finds that longevity increased faster under right-wing governments in southern Europe than under social democracies in the Nordic countries.The study, published online in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science and Medicine, examines changes in longevity patterns in eight European countries from 1950 to 2000. The countries studied were Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Be a Seventh-Day Adventist: A large study of centenarians released Thursday in the journal Science identified a host of genetic markers that can be used to predict exceptional longevity with 77 percent accuracy, a finding that opens an intriguing window into the complexities of human aging. (I remember hearing about a similar finding in a National Geographic article a few years ago.) Be an optimist: a study of 5,000 university students for more than 40 years found that the most pessimistic tended to die younger. As well, a longer study of 180 Catholic nuns from early adulthood to old age found that those who wrote positive autobiographies of their early 20s outlived those who wrote negative accounts. Start formal schooling after age six: Also from The Longevity Project - Children who started first grade at age five were at higher risk of dying early, and those who started school on schedule (at age six) lived longer. The book notes a study by M.L. Kern and H.S. Friedman Early Educational Milestones as Predictors of Lifelong Academic Achievement, Midlife Adjustment and Longevity in the Journal of applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 419-430

Two Bonus Factors that werent included in the infographic because of an art directors call: (1) Earning more money A study reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, found that people earning $15,000 a year or less from 1972 to 1989 were three times more likely to die prematurely than those earning $70,000 or more. (2) Being a Married Male Study published in 2004 by the Center for Economic Research at ETH Zurich: men live longer if married, but women older than 65 live 1.4 years longer if they are single. [Looks like either way, somebody loses!]