Feeling that there is more to cope with as you get older? Well, it turns out that how you deal with life’s challenges could make the difference to your lifespan. That’s because new research has revealed that being more resilient to life’s ups and downs as you age might actually cut your risk of death.
The new study showed that adults with the highest levels of mental resilience had the lowest chance of dying, cutting their risk of death by a whopping 53 per cent. Published in BMJ Mental Health, the study collected information about mental resilience and health from a large study of US adults aged 50 years and above. Over time, the scientists followed 10,569 adults for around 12 years or until they died (whichever happened soonest).
First, they measured their mental resilience and scored them on a scale of 0-12 based on their answers to a questionnaire about their perceived calmness, perseverance, self-reliance and sense that certain experiences have to be faced alone.
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Then the researchers split the participants into four groups depending on how mentally resilient they were. Compared to the group with the least resilience, the most resilient older adults were 53 per cent less likely to die in the next 10 years.
According to the scientists, mental resilience is an active process that changes across your lifespan and is influenced by factors such as your sex, hormones and genes that regulate the body’s stress response. But having meaning in life, positive emotions, and satisfaction with social support can all also impact your resilience, they explain.
“Triggering these positive emotions may enhance the protective effects of psychological resilience and mitigate the negative impact of accumulated adversity on mental health in adult,” the paper’s authors, from Sun Yat-sen University, China, and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, said.
In fact, the researchers think that mental resilience could have similar effects to bouncing back physically after illness and trauma, as good coping skills may offset the negative impacts of tough times.
That means that, while you cannot control what life throws at you as you age, how you deal with these problems could be literally life-lengthening. So, is finding a way to think more positively about life’s challenges the only way to live a longer life? Sadly, it’s not quite as simple as that.
The scientists showed that both ill health (like living with cancer, diabetes or cardiovascular disease which can cause heart attacks) and living an unhealthy lifestyle actually lessen the link between mental resilience and your chances of dying.
When taking these factors into account, the most resilient older adults were only 38 per cent (rather than 53 per cent) less likely to die in the next ten years compared with the least resilient older adults. Still, it’s a significant leap for those who have a more positive outlook on life.
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