RealBuzz – Mon, Dec 17, 2012
No sense of humor
You know how people always say “laughter is the best medicine?”
Turns out they’re telling the truth. A study carried out by Sven
Svebak at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, which
covered 54,000 subjects, found that people with a high capacity for
humor were 35 per cent more likely to be live longer than people
who ranked at the bottom of the humor scale. If you are planning to
go through life keeping laughter to a minimum, you’ll be missing
out on health benefits such as stress reduction, immune system
improvement, and increased blood flow, which could reduce your life
expectancy when compared to your chuckling peers.
It’s been proven that taking regular holidays is a stress busting
health booster, but it seems the way we travel to those holidays
isn’t quite as healthy. In fact, flying can be downright bad for
you. It’s already been proven by the Association of Flight
Attendants that people who have careers in the aviation industry
are more at risk of dying from cancer, and now it’s become apparent
why. According to physicist Robert Parish, when you reach the
average cruising altitude of 39,000 feet in a plane you are subject
to 64 times more radiation than at sea level due to cosmic rays,
which over time can seriously affect your
wellbeing.
You know that person who you can’t stand at work? As if things
weren’t bad enough already, they’re actually shortening your
lifespan. Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that a person’s
colleagues have a significant bearing on their wellbeing, with
friendly and supportive co-workers leading to lowered stress levels
and a reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol. People at work
who cause arguments and don’t share the workload equally have the
opposite effect, causing stress and subsequently a higher risk of
dying amongst their colleagues. These negative effects were most
obvious in subjects between the ages of 38 and 43, so if you fall
into that bracket it might be time to bury the hatchet with your
work enemies.
Retiring is often the light at the end of the tunnel for stressed
workers, especially for those who have saved all of their life so
that they can do it earlier. Sadly, that lifetime of financial
sacrifice is leading to a shorter lifespan according to research
carried out by Shell Health Services. The study discovered that
people who retire at 55 on average died younger than those who
waited until they were 65. John Rother, chief lobbyist of the
American Association of Retired Persons, explained it rather
bluntly by saying “you use it or you lose it” – by retiring early,
your body misses out on its daily dose of activity and you
gradually become more unhealthy.
We’re always told to cut back on how much alcohol we drink, and
rightly so – excessive alcohol consumption can severely damage your
health. However, go to the opposite end of the drinking spectrum
and you could be in even more trouble than heavy drinkers. A study
at the University of Texas found that non-drinkers have a lower
life expectancy than people who drink a moderate amount, and in
some cases even lower than heavy drinkers. This is partly due to
missing out on the health benefits associated with alcohol. Alcohol
(in sensible amounts) helps to protect against heart disease, and
decreases the likelihood of Alzheimer’s and dementia through
improved neuron function in the brain.
Getting enough sleep is important when it comes to good health, so
surely the more shut-eye you get the better, right? Wrong.
Consistently going too far over the recommended eight hours can
negatively affect your health according to a study conducted by
RealAge.com. The findings showed that participants who slept for
more than nine and a half hours a night suffered from a staggering
60 per cent increase in heart disease, and a higher mortality rate
when compared to people who stick to the recommended amount. As
well as heart disease, over-sleeping has also been linked with a
whole host of health issues, including obesity, diabetes, headaches
and depression.
Sex is good for you. Is anyone still here? For those of you who
haven’t frantically run off to tell a significant other the good
news, we’ll explain why. The British Medical
Journal conducted a sex survey and found that men who
didn’t have sex at least once a month experienced twice the
mortality rate of those who were getting lucky once a week. It’s
not hard to see why this is the case – having sex burns kilojoules,
lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system, and much, much
more. A study at Duke University also backed this up, finding that
women who had enjoyable sex lives lived eight years longer than
those who didn’t.
