Research finds new link between personality and risk of death

I'm not sure how your doctor is going to instill conscientiousness (a tendency to be responsible, organized, and capable of self-control) in you.

Research finds new link between personality and risk of death

round-breaking research led by University of Limerick has revealed for the first time that the immune system directly links personality to long-term risk of death.

The study sheds new light on why people who are more conscientious tend to live longer.

Results from the new international study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity have found that the immune system plays a previously unknown role in the link between personality traits and long-term risk of death.

"Personality is known to be associated with long-term risk of death, it is a well replicated finding observed across numerous research studies internationally," explained Principal Investigator on the study Dr. Páraic Ó Súilleabháin, from the Department of Psychology and Health Research Institute at University of Limerick, Ireland.

"The critical question is 'how'. We wanted to find out if a biological pathway such as our immune system may explain why this happens.

"Our personality is critically important throughout our lives, from early stages in our development, to the accumulation of the impact of how we think, feel, and behave across our lives, and in the years preceding our death. It is also becoming increasingly apparent how important personality actually is for our long-term health and resulting longevity. For instance, it has been shown that people scoring lower on the personality trait of conscientiousness (a tendency to be responsible, organized, and capable of self-control) can be at a 40% increased risk of future death compared to their higher scoring counterparts. What is not clear is how this could happen, and importantly, what biological pathway might be responsible for this link," added Dr. Ó Súilleabháin.

Led by Dr. Ó Súilleabháin, this study was conducted with a team of collaborators from the Department of Psychology at UL, the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University, the Department of Psychology at Humboldt University Berlin, and the College of Medicine at Florida State University.

The researchers wanted to investigate if two biological markers which are central to the immune system may explain why personality traits are associated with long-term mortality risk. Specifically, they wanted to test if interleukin-6 and c-reactive protein which are known to play an important role in age-related morbidity may explain how our personality traits are related to how long we live. The study was drawing on data from the Midlife in the United States Longitudinal Study carried out on 957 adults who were examined over a 14-year period.

Dr. Ó Súilleabháin explained, "We found that part of the reason why people who score higher on the personality trait of conscientiousness live longer is as a result of their immune system, specifically due to lower levels of a biological marker called interleukin-6. There are likely further biological mechanisms that are yet to be discovered which will give a clearer picture of all the different ways that our personalities are so critical to our long-term health.

"These findings are very important and identify for the first time that an underlying biological marker directly links personality to long-term mortality risk. With replication, these findings provide an opportunity for future interventions to increase our longevity and health across the lifespan," Dr. Ó Súilleabháin added.

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Study identifies social and behavioral factors most closely associated with dying

Hell, I've got at least 40 years to go yet, would like to emulate this Spaniard.

Man Dies Aged 107, Thanked Red Wine For Long Life - 3 liters a day, no water

Study identifies social and behavioral factors most closely associated with dying

Smoking, divorce and alcohol abuse have the closest connection to death out of 57 social and behavioral factors analyzed in research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study analyzed survey data collected from 13,611 adults in the U.S. between 1992 and 2008, and identified which factors applied to those who died between 2008 and 2014.

"It shows that a lifespan approach is needed to really understand health and mortality," said Eli Puterman, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia's school of kinesiology and lead author of the study. "For example, instead of just asking whether people are unemployed, we looked at their history of unemployment over 16 years. If they were unemployed at any time, was that a predictor of mortality? It's more than just a one-time snapshot in people's lives, where something might be missed because it did not occur. Our approach provides a look at potential long-term impacts through a lifespan lens."

Life expectancy in the U.S. has stagnated for three decades relative to other industrialized countries, raising questions about which factors might be contributing. Biological factors and medical conditions are always at the top of the list, so this study intentionally excluded those in favor of social, psychological, economic, and behavioral factors.

Of the 57 factors analyzed, the 10 most closely associated with death, in order of significance, were:

1. Current smoker - Nope

2. History of divorce - Best thing to happen to me and my stroke caused it.

3. History of alcohol abuse - Well, a doctor friend calls me a high functioning drunk, I take that as a compliment, and I'm using it to vastly increase my social life and prevent dementia.

4. Recent financial difficulties - Nope, just retired and packed my saddlebags early and often.

5. History of unemployment - one time, 9 months after being fired.

6. Previous history as a smoker - Nope

7. Lower life satisfaction - Life is great

8. Never married - One time, not happily

9. History of food stamps - Nope

10. Negative affectivity - I am eternally happy, people I just meet comment on my happiness

The data came from the nationally representative U.S. Health and Retirement Study, whose participants ranged in age from 50 to 104, with an average age of 69.3. These surveys didn't capture every possible adversity—neither food insecurity nor domestic abuse was addressed, for example—but the new findings provide an indication of where various factors stand in relation to each other.

"If we're going to put money and effort into interventions or policy changes, these areas could potentially provide the greatest return on that investment," Puterman said. "Smoking has been understood as one of the greatest predictors of mortality for 40 years, if not more, but by identifying a factor like negative affectivity—this idea that you tend to see and feel more negative things in your life—we can see that we might need to start targeting this with interventions. Can we shift it and have an impact on mortality rates? Similarly, can we target interventions for the unemployed and those with financial difficulties to reduce their risk?"

UBC kinesiology masters student Benjamin Hives also contributed to the study, along with Puterman's colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of California San Francisco, and Stanford University.

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Eating more plant protein associated with lower risk of death

And just when the fuck will your doctor and nutritionist come up with a diet stroke protocol? Or are they going to sit on their asses until they retire leaving you in the lurch? Call your hospital president and ask why they continue to employ such patently incompetent persons.

Eating more plant protein associated with lower risk of death

The largest study to examine the effects of different sources of dietary protein found that a high intake of proteins from animal sources - particularly processed and unprocessed red meats - was associated with a higher mortality rate, while a high intake of protein from plant sources was associated with a lower risk of death. Results from the study - which analyzed data from two long-term epidemiologic studies - appears in the August 1 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

"Overall, our findings support the importance of the sources of dietary protein for long-term health outcomes," says Mingyang Song, MD, ScD, a research fellow in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit (CTEU) and Division of Gastroenterology and corresponding author of the report. "While previous studies have primarily focused on the overall amount of protein intake - which is important - from a broad dietary perspective, the particular foods that people consume to get protein are equally important. Our findings also have public health implications and can help refine current dietary recommendations about protein intake, in light of the fact that it is not only the amount of protein but the specific food sources that is critical for long-term health."
While several studies have suggesting that substituting proteins for carbohydrates in the diet has several health benefits - including weight management, reducing blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors - the authors note, few studies have examined the specific sources of protein. Those that have were relatively small and based on one-time assessment of participants' diets. The current study analyzes data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), which have compiled comprehensive health data on more than 170,000 participants since the 1980s. In addition to completing overall health questionnaires every two years, participants provide information on their dietary intake - specifically how often they consumed portions of particular types of food during the preceding year - every four years.
The researchers analyzed more than 30 years of data for NHS participants and 26 years of data for HPFS participants, totaling more than 3.5 million person-years. During those time periods more than 36,000 deaths were documented among study participants - almost 9,000 from cardiovascular disease, around 13,000 from cancer and about 14,000 from other causes. After adjustment for lifestyle and other dietary risk factors, a high consumption of protein from animal sources - any types of meat, eggs or dairy - was weakly associated with an increased rate of death, while high consumption of protein from plant sources - breads, cereals, pasta, beans, nuts and legumes - was associated with a lower mortality rate.
More careful analysis revealed that the association of animal protein intake with an elevated mortality risk only applied to participants with at least one factor associated with an unhealthy lifestyle - being either obese or underweight, heavy alcohol consumption, a history of smoking, or physical inactivity. In fact, the association disappeared in participants with a healthy lifestyle. Analysis based on specific sources of protein indicated that the animal-protein-associated mortality risk applied primarily to processed and unprocessed red meats, which include both beef and pork products, and not to protein from fish or poultry.
"While we expected we might find the associations to be weaker in the healthy lifestyle group, we did not expect them to completely disappear," says Song. "But when we looked deeper into the data, we found that - at similar levels of animal protein intake - those in the unhealthy lifestyle group consumed more red meats, eggs and high-fat dairy, while the healthy lifestyle group consumed more fish and poultry. So we suspect the different sources of animal protein between the two groups may contribute to the stronger results in the unhealthy lifestyle group."
He adds, "Our findings suggest that people should consider eating more plant proteins than animal proteins, and when they do choose among sources of animal protein, fish and chicken are probably better choices. Future studies should examine the mechanisms underlying the different effects of plant and animal proteins - along with different sources of animal proteins - on overall health."

Explore further: More red meat consumption appears to be associated with increased risk of death

More information: JAMA Intern Med. Published online August 1, 2016. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4182

Journal reference: JAMA Internal Medicine
Provided by: The JAMA Network Journals

This incredible visualization explains what kills Americans at every age

Well I beat the circulatory one at age 50, I really think it is going to be external causes(accident) at age 90+ for me.
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/10/11608064/americans-cause-of-death

You go on living as best as you can, Having some fun along the way

A Phil saying in 'Unbroken'.  Friends are some what worried about me, they really don't want me to die on some mountain because I was stupid enough to climb it alone.I probably will anyway since one of my goals is to climb all the Colorado 14,000 foot peaks and I doubt my friends will be able to accompany me on each trip.
I know I have a tendency to do wild and crazy things. But it makes me feel alive. A Hunter S. Thompson quote for you;

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” 

Even though he did leave this suicide note; "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun – for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax – This won’t hurt." That's not the way I'm going, it will probably be a wingsuit accident at 94.

 

The response back to that was, 'Good, we are expecting you to turn out the lights'.

 

And I am going to have one hell of a lot of fun for the rest of my life. There is already a two week trip to Paris next March.

Will You Die in 5 Years? This New Test May Tell You - UbbLE Risk Calculator

Discussion of it here:

Will You Die in 5 Years? This New Test May Tell You - UbbLE Risk Calculator

The calculator here:

UbbLE Risk Calculator

My five-year risk of dying is 3.1%

I do consider my health excellent. And if I remove the stroke from the answers it is:

Your five-year risk of dying is 2.5%