This first study, from Loma Linda University, looked at centenarians and seniors, many of whom were “well on their way to becoming centenarians,” in the Loma Linda, CA community. This area is one of the five “blue zones”—areas around the world where people live extraordinarily long lives—outlined in the book of the same title by Dan Buettner.
The authors interviewed community members about their early life experiences, and found that they were more often than not peppered with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These included all kinds of events, giving rise to both acute and chronic stress—extreme family financial stress, food deprivation, child abuse, community violence, parental mental health issues, homelessness, parental addiction, and family separations. Many grew up during the Depression and World War II, and their families’ economic stresses affected food security, access to healthcare, and access to education.
But the participants also engaged in a number of behaviors throughout life that seemed to help counter the effects of stress and support longevity. A central habit was that people made and maintained strong social connections, which previous research has also shown to be one of the central predictors (if not the central predictor) of well-being and longevity. Other behaviors linked to lifespan were living a “kinetic life,” meaning that an individual was outdoors and active, often from morning till evening; charitable acts and altruism; spiritual practices, like prayer; a day of rest or “resetting” that often included social connection and/or family excursions; significant engagement with nature; eating simple “real” foods; and having intrinsic drive and a hopeful outlook.
[For more on this story by Alice G. Walton, go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/a...stress/#204920132e11]
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