Emotional Longevity: What Really Determines How Long We Live - Rilegato

Anderson, Norman B.; Anderson, P. Elizabeth

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0670031852 ISBN 13: 9780670031856

Casa editrice: Viking Pr, 2003

Riassunto

A dual study of biological and behavioral science seeks to connect optimism, positive relationships, and faith to longevity and other health benefits, drawing on the examples of famous figures and case studies. 35,000 first printing.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D., is a professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health. Previously he was the first associate director of the National Institutes of Health for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and was associate professor of Social and Health Sciences at Duke University.

P. Elizabeth Anderson is an award-winning writer and is currently the health and fitness writer for the Providence Journal.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

Introduction

Emotional Longevity:
Toward a New Definition
of Health

The greatest compliment I have ever received came from my mother, in her last words, on the last day of her life. She said, "You are becoming just like me."

As a son I've often pondered the meaning and significance of what she said, as I've pondered her long and vital life. What did it mean to be just like her? I will perhaps never fully understand the meaning she intended by her statement, but I do know that my mother possessed many characteristics worthy of emulation. Among the most impressive was the harmony of her moods, where anger or fear were rarely evident and sadness was short-lived, but where contentment, joy, and happiness were nearly ever present, even when external circumstances were less than uplifting.

As a psychologist and a health researcher, I have also pondered how science could uncover what contributed to my mother's emotional symmetry, and her longevity, and make it available for everyone. To uncover in a sense what it means to be truly whole, in body, mind, and spirit, and package it for all. Although this is a tall order for science, I think we are actually getting close-closer than we've ever been before. This book is about a new revolution in health science that is getting us there, and in doing so is literally transforming what it means to be healthy and demonstrating how we can enhance the quality and length of our lives.

These days when you hear about a revolution in health science, you are in all probability hearing about the genetics revolution, and for good reason. Genetics has already transformed biological science and has the promise to change the practice of medicine. But health science is also experiencing another revolution-one that is less publicized but is, in some respects, as complex and profound as the recent breakthroughs in genetics. This other revolution, like the one in genetics, is fueled by rigorous scientific methodology and advanced statistical analyses. But, unlike the genetics revolution, this one can be brilliantly illuminated in the lives of everyday people. People who have the kinds of lives most of us strive for-lives that are happy, fulfilled, confident, mentally engaged, and vital. These are people who are able to hold off sickness until the very end of long lives and who do not suffer through years of chronic illness. If illness comes, these are people who recover faster or who, like my mother, are able to maintain a sense of emotional and psychological well-being, and perhaps even grow from the experience.

My mother, Lois Anna Jones Anderson, died in 1992 at the age of seventy-eight. Although she was ultimately claimed by cancer, the arc of her life and her senior years were characterized by strong health and vigor. For nearly fifty years she and my father served as copastors of a sizable Baptist church in North Carolina, making her one of the first women leaders of a large Southern congregation. Though leading a congregation was not always heaven on earth, my mother reveled in the rich and rewarding life of the church. It provided her an intellectual outlet, where she prepared weekly sermons and Bible-study lessons. Her personal relationships were broad and deep, not only with members of the church but also with many people in the community. These people provided her with a vast network of mutual support. My mother also had a very keen mind and loved to read on a variety of topics, but she especially loved books on spiritual matters. When she married my father, she had only finished high school, but she valued education so much that she squeezed in college courses between church duties and raising a family. She earned a bachelor's and a master's degree and was ultimately awarded an honorary doctorate in theology.

My mother's life was not perfect, and she had her share of negative experiences. At the age of eight, she was devastated by the death of her own mother. Two years later her younger sister died of an infection after accidentally sticking a pencil in her eye. While still coping with those deaths, she lost the security of her home in Norfolk, Virginia, when her father abruptly moved the family to New York City. She suffered several miscarriages trying to have children. Much later in life my mother coped with several debilitating chronic illnesses in the family, from Alzheimer's disease in two sisters and a brother to my father's coma following a heart attack, which left him in a deep vegetative state for eighteen months. When my father died, my mother took over the reins of the two-thousand-member church alone, at the age of seventy. This was to be another trying time for her. As many historians have documented, women leaders in the church are often met with strong opposition. My mother had been a full partner with my father, providing spiritual guidance and counsel to all church members. Yet, without my father's presence, a few vocal male leaders of the congregation could not adjust to a woman at the helm. These men spearheaded a very bitter and ugly revolt, which severely divided the church. To end the turmoil, my mother, after much thought and prayer, relinquished her leadership and graciously resigned. In essence, saving the church meant losing the defining element of her life: that of a church leader at the institution she helped build, nurture, and strengthen.

It was during times of trauma and challenge that I was most impressed with my mother. She always faced obstacles with a combination of dignity, faith, wisdom, optimism, and quiet confidence. She seemed to rise above circumstances that would leave most of us reeling. In fact, it was during her ultimate battle with cancer that her remarkable attributes were most clearly manifest.

By any measure my mother had achieved what has come to be known as "successful aging," defined as experiencing minimal disease or disability until the end of life, a high level of mental and physical functioning, and an engagement in life.1 She enjoyed a high quality of life-even in the presence of untoward circumstances-something we would all like to achieve. But is her experience realistic for most of us? Is it really possible to avoid the sickness and disability thought to inevitably accompany old age? Can we hope to achieve or maintain physical, mental, and emotional health as we grow older? Is it possible to have a positive outlook on life and experience happiness in the presence of negative life circumstances?

Science has progressed to a point where I believe that the answer to these questions is unequivocally "Yes!" New research is uncovering not only the dimensions of successful aging but also the elements of a larger phenomenon that I call emotional longevity. Although the expression may appear at first to connote long-lasting emotions, my meaning is very different. "Emotional longevity" is a symbolic rather than literal expression, meant to signal a departure from traditional ways of thinking about longevity. In the past we have thought of longevity, either implicitly or explicitly, as determined primarily by biology, but the phrase "emotional longevity" symbolizes a shift in emphasis away from an exclusive focus on biology. It serves to highlight the essence of the new way of thinking about longevity and health, an essence characterized by connections-connections between biology and social relationships; between biology and beliefs and behavior; and between biology and emotions. Science is now documenting these and other connections and showing us that attaining physical and mental health and longevity involves much more than being biologically sound, and even more than staying physically fit and eating a proper diet. Emotional longevity is the idea that these connections, between biological and nonbiological factors,2 occurring across the life span, are what ultimately determine our health, the quality of our lives, and how long we live.

This book is about the science that has uncovered these connections and how they affect our health. It is also about people, like my mother, whose lives illustrate the new scientific findings, which together are changing our views on what it means to be healthy.

SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HEALTHY?

The traditional answer to this question is fairly straightforward: Being healthy means an absence of disease. With no diagnosis or symptoms, traditional medical science gives us a clean bill of health. This does not mean that well-known risk factors for disease are ignored; cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity do raise concern. But in the absence of a diagnosable illness, we are still considered "healthy." Yet the absence of disease, even the absence of traditional risk factors, can be misleading.

Are We Missing Something?

In this book I discuss research that tracks large groups of individuals, often for years, who are free of disease. Invariably a certain percentage of these individuals die prematurely from illnesses that were not predicted based on their age, initial health, or established risk factors. If we define health simply as the absence of disease or traditional biological or behavioral risk factors, we are obviously missing something important. But what? One answer could legitimately come from genetics, since we know that certain illnesses have a strong genetic component. Yet future genetic tests will likely leave a large gap in the ability to accurately predict longevity and will further serve to highlight the need to encompass nonbiological aspects of disease.

For example, identical twins, because they share the same genetic structure, are at the same genetic risk for illness. Yet even twins vary tremendously in their experience of health problems such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, hypertension, and rheumatoid arthritis.3 Here is a case in point: A study of the prevalence of cancer in twins, involving over 44,000 pairs of twins, was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.4 The study was designed to estimate the relative importance of heritable an...

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Viking Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0670031852
• ISBN 13: 9780670031856
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 332