At a certain point in life, many people feel they are younger than their actual age. It turns out this may actually have a relationship with how long they may live down the line. A recent study in the UK by Dr. Steptoe and Dr. Rippon tracked 6489 patients with an average age of 52. These individuals were asked how old they felt and the results were classified into 3 groups: 1) those that felt close to their actual age (1 year older to 2 years younger), 2) those who felt more than 1 year older than their actual age, and 3) those that felt 3 or more years younger than their actual age. This seems rather silly at first, but the results that followed were pretty astonishing.
These three groups were then followed for 99 months. It turns out that the crude mortality (death) rate was 14.3% in those who felt younger, 18.5% in those who felt about close to their actual age, and 24.6% in those that felt older than their age. This indicates that those who felt younger had a lower rate of death than those who felt older. So is this a simple case of mind over matter? Yes and no.
I think it is important to take a look at why people feel the way they do. Those that felt younger than their actual age likely had reasons to feel that way. They may have exercised, had less stress, enjoyed life more, and had a better outlook. On the other hand, those that felt older may have led a sedentary lifestyle, gotten less sleep, had more stress, etc. Having said that, the perception that you are younger than your actual age definitely has benefits. It likely causes you to be more active, eat better, and want better for yourself. While this sounds logical, it had never before been demonstrated in such a large study. So the bottom line is: live forever young and it may help you live longer.
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