The Longevity Project Reflections

I found Chapter 14 to be one of the more interesting chapters, since it talked about how traumatic events and long-term stress impact people. This is something I have an interest in because epigenetics is SO cool. The fact that life experiences can literally change how our genes are expressed (through alterations in histone regulation) and affect biological systems as a result is mind-blowing to me. Chronic stress is a crucial part of this, since chronically elevated cortisol levels alter DNA methylation, which they hint at in the chapter. I would have predicted many of the findings that they discuss in chapter 14, such as the tendency of people with severe trauma to cope in unhealthier ways and the overall decrease in health and longevity. One of the things I’ve been reading up on recently is the alcohol anxiety cycle, something that ties in perfectly with post-traumatic mental health issues and substance abuse. Basically, alcohol not only hinders the sleep cycle but it also causes a massive spike in lactic acid during sleep, which has been found to significantly increase anxiety. Drinking alcohol then decreases anxiety (temporarily) and functions as a way of coping, but ends up exacerbating the anxiety in the long run. To me, this is a perfect example of how life events influence biological systems, which in turn affect mental health and physical health. It’s remarkable how much of an impact traumatic events and stress have on our overall health.

Chapter 15 summarizes many of their main findings about longevity. They found that social support and community involvement were critical, especially if those engagement facilitated a more active lifestyle. They found that conscientiousness, ambition, and persistence were far more important than cheerfulness or popularity. It was more helpful to be satisfied with a challenging and engaging career–even a stressful one–than it was to have a safe but unstimulating or unsuccessful career. Stress was highly relevant, though, and chronic levels of it seriously harmed individuals’ longevity. It was also not as important as most people think to be married, because the benefits of marriage depended a lot on the characteristics of the individuals and the support vs. stress that the marriage brought. Basically, an individual’s resilience, social engagement, and productivity are pertinent determinants of longevity, according to the authors. There is no easy way to living a long life, because it relies on a lifelong path of healthy inclinations and adaptability. Here’s hoping we can all manage that, I guess!

In the epilogue of “The Longevity Project,” the authors bring up some of the main lessons that can be learned from the Terman study and applied to public health. They mention how misguided health/longevity advice typically is, especially because many of their findings didn’t corroborate the common adages. (For example, ‘taking it easy’ and avoiding high stress occupations doesn’t end up being good advice; instead, doctors should recommend finding an occupation that is stimulating and rewarding, regardless if it happens to be high stress.) Oversimplified recommendations can really misguide people, and this is especially true regarding diet and exercise. For this reason, the authors say that lists and do/don’t guidelines may sometimes cause more harm than good.

In the end, personality, social engagement, and mental health are much more closely tied to physical wellbeing than current healthcare models would suggest. According to the authors, this indicates a clear need to reshape public health policy, perhaps towards encouraging community engagement and developing conscientious tendencies. I believe this to be incredibly true, as the biomedical model leaves much to be desired in terms of integrated care. If people are to be able to access not only long life but a high quality of life, a more comprehensive approach to developing resilience, emotional intelligence, and conscientiousness should be prioritized. My time working with neurodiverse children made me strongly believe that social skills and empathy curricula in early education are critical, in order to help all children develop good self regulation skills early on. As the Terman study showed, the ability to self-regulate and be resilient to life’s challenges, as well as the capacity to connect well with others, are all critical qualities for maintaining a healthy life path. There’s still a lot of work to be done in implementing such recommendations, but I do believe that they could make a positive difference.

Chapter 14 discusses the effects of war and stress on longevity. War is a very stressful and traumatic situation to be a part of. The results of the Terman study prove that war and traumatic events equivalent to war can have very lasting effects on longevity. The environment in which the individual is in during the war also matters when discussing the impact of war. Individuals who were in more hostile positions and or settings, or were directly affected by the conflict had increased rates of mortality. It makes sense that a person more involved in a war, or has seen a friend or buddy die in combat will be more stressed. In turn, will be more prone to stress-related diseases and increased mortality. The chapter also discusses the importance of genes when talking about stress. Neither genes nor stress alone determines longevity. The two work together and in turn, can give a better idea of longevity. Chapter 15 was more or less a summary of the book. While modern medicine is critical, health is determined by individual pathways. Some individuals live healthier lives, and these healthier pathways lead to longevity. Modern medicine can not cure everything, and there should not be a pill for everything. Sometimes, the individual must live a healthier lifestyle.

About Chapter 14, I have never been to war and never quite experienced anything similar to the trauma level of war. I am fortunate enough to say that so I can’t really speak on how I have dealt with that in the past. This closest relation I have to such trauma is an uncle who is a medic in the Navy. Fortunately, he has been stationed Stateside for the entirety of his service. While I can’t speak personally about these experiences, it would only make sense to me that individuals more traumatized by war would have an increased mortality rate. PTSD and depression are severe mental health issues, and these brave soldiers go to war knowing these implications. I am grateful for their service and grateful they are fighting so I don’t have to.

While I don’t plan on enlisting in the military, I respect anyone willing to sacrifice for the greater good of this country. I hope not to experience a trauma similar to war either. However, if I have family that does one day enlist or is directly affected by war, I hope to be there for them while they go through the stress and trauma of it. War can lead to adverse health behaviors because of the stress, and I hope to be the support system that encourages healthy living in the time of strife. Being that support system can be the difference in a possible friend or family members life.

The epilogue served as a summary/ wrap up of the book. The authors state that many of our problems as a society stem from wrong ideas on health. We focus too much on list and genetics to determine health. Genetics can only give us the history of our family and which tests would be best and what are predictors of certain diseases. However, it is up to the individual to determine, which pathway to take, in regards to their health. Lists do not work because they are overly simplified. In many cases, they present too much data and do not work in the long run. The authors also discuss how Terman did not let his biases navigate his study, but rather stated facts. However, minority groups were not represented in the study. Finally, the epilogue talks about society needing better mental-physical health connection. If we as a community, are more goal oriented and conscientious, then we can become a healthier community. I felt the epilogue was pretty fair and not much to argue with. It would make sense that, if everyone tried to better themselves, health-wise, we would be a healthier community. Lists and genetics are often stressed too much because a lot has to do with the individual themself. While individuals can be predisposed to certain diseases increasing their likelihood of it, the pathway they choose is largely in part their decision. Granted, this is if the individual is provided the resources to choose the healthier pathway.

I thought one of the most interesting ideas of Chapter 14 was about depression not being the cause of bad health, but a symptom of the dangerous lifestyle they were living. As someone who suffered from depression due to a traumatic circumstance, I see this very clearly. When our bodies undergo constant stress and are unable to find relief, we get exhausted and our bodies give up. When this happens and depression creeps in, it’s a sign that something in our life is very wrong and needs to be corrected or helped. When discussing receiving help after going into battle, we realize that men are more likely to be sent overseas than women. As we learned from the previous chapter, feminine individuals are more likely to reach out for help whereas masculine men are not. I would imagine that it’s masculine men going to war rather than feminine men, so they probably are less likely to reach out for help when they come back, leading them down a dangerous path of increased drinking and depression.

Chapter 15 was mainly just a recap on the entire book, going over what the big takeaways from each chapter were. Through all that fluff, I drew out the main point of the reading: our health derives from how we live our lives, highlighting the importance of the biopsychosocial model. We’ve clearly been focusing too much on the medical side of health and not enough on what is causing health issues in our social lives and emotional state. I found this pretty interesting because it really gives us back control to live a long life. If we want to be healthier, the steps have been laid out for us to act on. I for one know that there are definitely some aspects of my life that I would like to change to inflict a more positive environment on my life.

I found the section about the relationship between depression and heart disease very interesting. The authors explained that, though there is an association, depression (and other psychological predictors) are not the cause of illness and disease. Instead, the authors bring up the concept of “pathways of health” that is often discussed in the book. An individual’s “pathway” through life is impacted by the social influences as well as other factors. In the case of war veterans, their role in the army and potential exposure to combat could cause significant stress. This stress can lead to depression, as well as other unhealthy life choices which further affect one’s path of life. With this lens, we can see that heart disease is not directly caused by depression, but the unhealthy choices that are often associated with depression, such as overeating and substance abuse.

I was also compelled by the idea of a polypill that will cure and protect against all diseases and causes of ill health. It does seem, especially in today’s media, that there is no health risk that can’t be combatted with some kind of pill or diet. I rarely scroll through Facebook without seeing an ad for a pill or diet that seems to solve all of life’s problems. However, the authors argue for a more inclusive approach to healthcare, in which doctors stray from the idea that illness is caused by one single factor. In this case, doctors would not treat heart disease by simply prescribing a medication, but would work to understand the complete “pathway” of their patient by gathering information on their social networks, personalities, and habits.

Both of these instances highlight the importance of a fuller approach to healthcare. Even with the improvement of medicine over recent decades, it is still important to see a patient as a person with a life instead of just a list of symptoms in order to promote better health rather than just freedom from illness.

The beginning of the epilogue introduces and interesting point: “Health care costs are exploding while overall quality of health is static” (217). Though the quote is not discussed much further, it struck me in an uncomfortable way. One would like to think that, as a society, we are aiming to improve the population’s health and longevity. However, it seems that “health” is getting more expensive as the years go on, which is never good for the bulk of society, and detrimental for some. That being said, if we do want to look to a healthier population that leads longer lives, we must find a way to make health care affordable and accessible to as many people as possible. Advice to “eat healthier” and “exercise more” only works as long as adequate healthcare is available.

Chapter 14 was about war and stress associated with it. The researchers found that men exposed to trauma or extreme stress are at an extremely high risk for increased drinking and drug use. Additionally, they found that the soldiers who went overseas were more likely than those who served at home to become sick and die in the years after they returned home. These two findings make sense. I have learned in previous psych classes that when one is under stress or suffering from ptsd, a negative coping technique is drinking and using drugs. The second finding also made sense because serving overseas is more stressful since you are in an unfamiliar and more dangerous environment. Something that surprised me was that more conscientious men were less likely to be deployed to the pacific theater. Instead, the more careless and impulsive men were sent over seas. This surprised me because I thought that more conscientious men would be smarter in battle. Another finding that surprised me was that only 1/3 of trauma victims go on to have PTSD. This surprised me because TV shows are always portraying characters who have gone through stressful events as having PTSD. In reality, most people do not suffer from nightmares and debilitating anxiety after traumatic events.

Chapter 15 was a general summary of the novel. Overall, the Terman participants’ lives showed that we cannot just focus on our bodies when examining our health. We need to look at our family, social circle, and any other environmental influences. Social relations in particular are vital to longevity. I’m going to remember this and try to expand my social circle as I continue through life. I’ve always been a quality over quantity person but now that I know that it is important to have a big social circle and consistently help others around me, I want to make a bigger effort to do so. The chapter also summarized the different personalities the participants had and whether or not their personalities helped them or hurt them throughout life. The big takeaway I got from these summaries was that being able to control your thoughts and actions, being conscientious, resilient, social, hard working, generous, a good planner, and never veering too far from a healthy lifestyle are all essential components to living a long, healthy, and happy life. Additionally, being slightly neurotic can be good for you. Looking back at the book, I realize that it is based on the biopsychosocial model because it takes into account different biological, psychological, and social factors that influence longevity.

I agree with the idea that longevity might be decreasing. Nearly 25% of the population has 2 or more chronic conditions. We know that having a chronic condition decreasing longevity so as long as we continue to be unhealthy as a population, I definitely think that average longevity in the U.S. has the potential to decrease. In addition, when it comes to eating I believe that the best approach to successfully maintaining, losing, or putting weight on in a healthy manner is to count your macronutrients. I believe this is the best approach because once you have the right ratio down, you are in complete control of how you manage your weight. Additionally, the “if it fits your macros” approach allows for you to eat anything you like and it does not promote strict dieting. Strict dieting often doesn’t work and can lead to a relapse in old eating habits. Finally, I agree with the authors that the U.S. healthcare system needs to change. We are the only industrialized country without universal health care. If everyone had access to high quality, affordable health care, I think that the percentage of people with chronic conditions would decrease and that longevity would continue to increase. I hope to work for a company after graduation that works to increase American’s access to healthcare.

It wasn’t surprising that men exposed to trauma or extreme stress are very likely to increase their drinking and if available their use of other drugs. This statement makes a lot of sense because men typically try to self medicate or treat themselves rather than talking about their feeling with someone else. It was also interesting that different personality types were associated with different deployments, for example in the book it says that the more conscientious subjects were less likely to be sent to the pacific theater, while the more careless, vain and impulsive men had been as a child typically wound up fighting the Japanese in very dangerous and stressful pacific operations. It was interesting that the psychological stress of war itself is not necessarily a major health threat. For a while, I thought that war was the main cause of PTSD, however after reading this chapter I learned that it is how veterans deal with their traumatic experiences that determines their overall health. This is shown in the book from the statement that those individuals who can find meaning in a traumatic experience and are able to re-establish a sense of security about the world are usually the ones who return to a healthy pathway.

Chapter 15 felt like a waste of reading to me because it basically summarized the entire book. I feel like chapter 15 wasn’t needed in this book because the book is already repetitive. Chapter 15 was also hard to follow because it seemed like it tried to cover too many topics in one chapter. In addition, most of the key points in the chapter weren’t really that surprising, in fact most of them could be inferred through common logic. The topics in each chapter build upon one another and tend to be repeated, so I’m not sure why the author felt the need to restate his findings in a separate chapter.

I liked how the epilogue highlighted that the connection between mental health and physical health. A lot of times people think that these are two separate entities, but are not aware of the fact that mental health can heavily influence physical health. It is not surprising however, that well adjusted children who grow up in a socially stable environment are much more likely to become healthy long living adults. As the book has previously stated several times, having healthy social connections are necessary for physical and mental health. Overall, I thought that the book was okay, it had some good points but also had points that I disagreed with. The main thing I did not like about the book was that most of their findings were based on self report.

Chapter 14 of The Longevity Project explores the effect of war and stress on physical health. The authors seek to understand why, despite proven negative effects of stress, many veterans and people who have undergone trauma live to old age. One important factor in military service’s effect on health is overseas versus home front service, as men overseas were one and a half times as likely to die than veterans on the home front. In addition, the location of fighting made a difference, and men who fought in the Pacific theater during the Vietnam war were much more likely to die than those that served in Europe. Interestingly, more impulsive and careless men were more likely to be sent to the Pacific. The authors explain that traumatic stress is particularly harmful if an individual does not cope effectively and develops unhealthy habits, such as smoking and drinking, with alcohol abuse a key problem for Terman veterans. As well, the authors evaluate the relationship between depression, cardiovascular disease and other illlnesses, describing a study that showed depression does not cause heart disease, and rather occurs in individuals on a pathway associated with poor health and earlier mortality. Overall, the authors conclude that both stress and genes are important, with some people more likely to both encounter and be affected by stress, and individuals already on a healthy path the better at responding to stress.

This chapter relates to my family as several of my cousins and uncles and my grandfather are war veterans. Despite the fact that they served overseas and saw combat, my family members reached out to family and friends for support when they returned from deployment and avoided unhealthy coping mechanisms. This speaks to the importance of a person’s response to stress and maintaining a healthy pathway.

This chapter also predicts well for my longevity as I generally have good response mechanisms to stress and use family support, exercise and other activities to deal with problems I face. As well, because I am already on a good path, it seems likely that I will cope well if faced with acute stress.

Chapter 15 of The Longevity Project summarizes concrete conclusions about how to improve individual health and longevity. The authors describe the growth of the healthcare field wellness field created to address the positive aspects of health, with healthy life pathways more important than anything else. Overall, the authors promote conscientiousness, hard but rewarding work, associating with healthy groups, avoiding catastrophic thinking, only getting married if it will be healthy and beneficial, cultivating resiliance, engaging in an active lifestyle (not just exercising), nurtering social connectedness and worrying to a healthy extent. In this way, the Terman participants that lived the longest were those who had meaningful and interesting lives and found healthy paths whenever they faced hardship. The habits of the individuals that lived the longest also promote a more fulfilling and productive life.

This chapter relates to me as I strive for the behaviors that the researchers found to increase longevity and support a fulfilling life. There are definitely things I need to work on, such as worrying too much and avoiding catastrophic thinking, but overall I am conscientious, sociable and hardworking. As a result, I hope these traits will improve both my longevity and quality of life.

Epilogue

Overall, in the epilogue of The Longevity Project the authors conclude that people overestimate the importance of family biology and focus too little on the importance of healthy pathways. As well, the authors stress that the medical community tends to provide oversimplified recommendations to health that are too narrow or incorrect. Finally, in addition to medical treatment for illness, society health occurs when individuals are conscientious, goal oriented, and connected to their communities, with mental health an important counterpart to physical health. Using these findings, social and health care policy changes can promote longevity and happiness.

In Chapter 14, the researchers outlined the health issues that could arise from traumas of war. They emphasized that stress is a good thing for one’s health until the body cannot settle back down and keeps revving up; that is when health is compromised. They found that trauma from war causes emotional distance as well as depression. Men are much more likely to increase their drinking and drug use after experiencing warlike trauma. Additionally, they found that those who went overseas to a more alien, disturbing location were more likely to become ill and pass away earlier. This could be attributed to the fact that those who have poorer mental health lived shorter lives. This reminds me of my grandfather. He was in World War II and earned a Purple Heart after being in a highly traumatic situation. Upon returning, he became an alcoholic who abused my grandmother and suffered from PTSD and depression. He died when my dad was only 20 years old. If he had not experienced the traumas of war, who knows if he would have been the same mentally ill man he became.

Chapter 15 outlined how one can individually impact their health. To begin with, I disagree that one should choose a path that is less suited to their individual lives in order to pursue longevity. I would rather be happy in the years that I have than to alter my lifestyle to live longer and, ultimately, be upset. The researchers also mentioned a bad idea of a “polypill”. The idea is that developers are making a pill that would overall improve mental health. I am very against this. I believe in therapy to get to the root of the issue before seeking medication. I do not think taking a pill every day to make yourself feel better without also going to therapy is unhealthy. It is avoiding the problem, making one rely on medication for the rest of their lives. They mentioned the new term “wellness” as being one way to counter this medicated world we live in. I do not think that one’s health should be dictated by how many medications they can seek out to get to the ideal mental state. Everyone deals with issues in their own way. There is no one way to deal with sadness, trauma, stress, etc. Therefore, the idea of overall wellness is, in my opinion, unhealthy and wrong.

The Epilogue, unlike the other sections, was one of the most positive and least contradictory of the book. They said that most of the beliefs held by society in regards to health are misguided. I believe this to be true based on the overwhelming amount of obese and unhealthy Americans today. Additionally, they said that we overestimate the importance of family biology. I believe this is true. Many people, knowing that a disease or condition runs in their family, will overcompensate for the possibility of them getting this disease and then ignore other aspects of health. As we learned in class, the researchers emphasized how health lists do not work. Just telling a person that they need to “be healthier” is not the way to go about a healthier life. Health has to be a holistic picture. One thing that I strongly disagreed with in the Epilogue was the final suggestion. The researchers stressed that a society with clean air, water, and food along with good schools and safe streets where all the members are more conscientious and goal-oriented is the way to a healthier society. However, this is easier said than done. Most parts of the country live in poverty where clean amenities are not easy to come by along with good schools where the citizens feel safe. Therefore, I thought by saying that this was the solution, the researchers were being inconsiderate to the lower classes.