Secret of Longevity: Conscientiousness - Neatorama

Want to live a long life? A study of 1,500 children born in 1910 revealed the secret of a long life: conscientious habits.

"Most people who live to an old age do so not because they have beaten cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or lung disease; rather, the long-lived have mostly avoided serious ailments altogether," according to Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, in their recent book, "The Longevity Project."
"The best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness--the qualities of a prudent, persistent, well organized person," according to the two professors (he at the University of California--Riverside, and she at La Sierra University). "Conscientiousness . . . also turned out to be the best personality predictor of long life when measured in adulthood."

Link | The Longevity Project at Amazon

A long time ago my uncle, a doctor, told me about a Johns Hopkins study called "Seven Things you Mother Told You." (as of now an unverified story.): Eat three meals a day, do not smoke, do not drink to excess, brush your teeth, sleep eight hours a night, bathe once a day, exercise regularly.
Doing six or seven of these will extend your life 20 years over someone who only does three or four.

This study generally seems to confirm what I was told.

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So you have a long life, but not a good one. No thanks.

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Other than accidental death, suicide or murder genetics play the key role in longevity. How do you avoid cancer or heart disease or kidney disease or diabetes by being conscientious? Don't we know there is a genetic link to all of these diseases? We can all give examples of people that, because of their lifestyles should have died earlier or lived longer. Ask several centenarians how they got there and you'll get several very different answers. If you've got good genetics you've got a much better chance at longevity than if you don't regardless of how conscientious you are.

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@D Bozko - I think part of that conscientiousness is going to the doctor regularly.

In the past, a lot of "health" depends on genetics. Today, while that remains very true, many killer diseases are now controllable with medicine.

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I'm so screwed if they're right :)

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While I'll not discount the possibility that "conscientiousness" probably does play a small role in extending one's lifespan, I'm sure it has much more to do with simply having the right genes, such as the FOXO3a gene that has been found in a majority of centenarians across a variety of ethnic groups around the world. Those in possession of the gene can probably be as conscientious(or not) as they please and live to 100 anyway.

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I think what this study is saying, more or less, is that if you are naturally conscientious then you probably have the right genes to live longer. Kinda like that one study from a story here a while ago that said if you naturally walk fast, you'll live longer. It's not that if suddenly decide to be more conscientious or walk faster, you'll live longer, but if you already do them naturally.

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I agree that conscientious habits play a big part in longevity. Also living a healthy lifestyle and eating the right type of nutrition foods is also important.

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