on Jan 9th, 2007Education Key to Longevity
Whether you are five or fifty, the one key factor that will determine how long you live, it turns out, is education. How simple. The undeveloped mind would appear to have less capacity for dealing with the stresses of the world. Being able to process life’s steady barrage of information requires a sophisticated ability to correctly store the information in a way that makes it friendly as opposed to unnerving.
What I really love about this article was the original insight that produced it: the researcher got curious about the connection between states passing laws that forced children to go to school and longevity. All of life is a hunch. The trick is figuring out which ones to pursue with a passion.
The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income. Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”
A Surprising Secret to a Long Life: Stay in School
By GINA KOLATA
New York Times, January 3, 2007