DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Cheer up… this is how faking a smile could help you live to be 100 years old!

A friend's father recently died at the ripe old age of 98. He had not led a particularly healthy lifestyle; he smoked and drank quite a bit in his youth, and fought in tanks in World War II. He attributed his longevity to his wife's support and an exceptionally positive outlook on life.

So was he right? In fact, there is a wealth of evidence that feeling positive about your life and about aging has a striking impact on longevity.

And now, a study just published in the Journal of Happiness Studies has identified six other aspects of personality linked to exceptional old age. The study was based on data from Spanish centenarians, ranging in age from 100 to 107 years: in addition to positivity – being grateful for life and celebrating the good things that happen – the centenarians all radiated vitality, enjoyed learning new things, they were conscientious and sociable. , intellectually curious, self-reliant and resilient.

I'm a bit of an Eeyore, with a tendency to expect the worst and look at the dark side of life, so I've long been interested in researching the impact of personality on life expectancy.

Ten years ago, I was making a documentary about the science behind such claims and came across a social experiment with truly fascinating implications for longevity.

In a study beginning in the 1970s in the small midwestern town of Oxford, Ohio, all residents over the age of 50 were asked to complete questionnaires about their jobs, health, family, and attitudes toward aging.

Decades later, researchers at Yale University went back to those people and found that being an optimist was a strong predictor of how long they were likely to live. The death data showed that those who had felt most optimistic about their lives and growing older lived an average of seven and a half years longer than those who did not.

To put these results in context, if we could cure cancer tomorrow, it would add, on average, half that amount (three to four years) to life expectancy.

Why “being positive” leads to a longer life is not clear, but it could be that optimistic people seek and receive more social support from others, and are less likely to suffer from chronic stress, which we know can compromise and shorten your immune system your life. Further evidence for the role of the immune system in the link between personality type and longevity came in a study published in 2021 in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

Researchers from the University of Limerick compared the results of personality tests with blood samples from more than 900 older adults over a period of 14 years – astonishingly, as in the Spanish study, those who scored higher on conscientiousness lived to an average of 35 percent. longer. In addition, they had significantly lower levels of interleukin-6, a measure of chronic inflammation that in turn is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, depression and dementia.

As for the other personality traits linked to longevity, the researchers think that being socially and intellectually curious means you're more likely to take care of your health; and being resilient means you have a greater sense of purpose – in other words, a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Why “being positive” leads to a longer life is not clear, but it could be that optimistic people seek and receive more social support from others and are less likely to suffer from chronic stress, which can compromise your immune system and shorten your life expectancy. to live

If, like me, you are not a naturally positive, conscientious, happy soul, here are a few things I have found helpful:

• Set yourself small, simple goals and pat yourself on the back when you achieve them. This is the basis of my podcast series Just One Thing, because there is plenty of evidence that in addition to the benefits you get from doing the 'thing', you also benefit from the feeling of satisfaction when you have taken a small, positive step.

• Practice gratitude meditations. My brother-in-law, who teaches at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, suggested I set aside a few minutes each day to write down or just think about everyday things I can be grateful for. I find this really helps me focus more on the positive.

• Keep your friends and family close and expand your social network. Easier said than done, I know, but there is ample evidence that having good friends is one of the most important forms of protection against stress and premature aging. One of the best things I did in this regard was joining a book club over twenty years ago, because it gave me a very diverse social network.

• Striking up conversations with strangers on planes and trains, even standing in line to buy coffee, is also meant to be good, but I can't quite bring myself to do it.

• Try to reframe situations: When I catch myself having catastrophizing thoughts about the future, I try to remember that these thoughts are not real and that everything will probably end well. What they usually do.

• And laugh. I've noticed that when people take pictures of me out of the blue, I rarely smile. Yet a study of nearly 4,000 people published last year in Nature Human Behavior found that even faking a smile does have an effect on reducing stress and increasing happiness, even if it is only a small effect.

Only time will tell whether such attempts to adjust my underlying Eeyore personality will help me live to be a hundred years old. But at least I'm more fun to have around.

Save YOUR marriage from a sleep divorce

I was struck by the recent article in the Mail in which Susannah Constantine described her 'sleep separation' from her husband: she moved into a separate bedroom because of the terrible impact her loud snoring had on their sleep.

'Sleep separation' is common. A survey last year found that five million British couples sleep in separate beds to improve their sleep, and more than half of us currently sharing a bed are thinking of sleeping elsewhere.

Not surprisingly, the most common reason is a partner's snoring. I've been thinking about moving to another room – not because my wife Clare snores, but because she is prone to sleepwalking and talking; she often gets out of bed in the middle of the night, turns on the light and starts searching the cupboards for hamsters, patients or anything else she is convinced is missing.

A survey last year found that five million British couples sleep in separate beds to improve their sleep, and more than half of us currently sharing a bed are thinking of sleeping elsewhere

While you are completely asleep. After a few minutes she gets back into bed, without remembering anything about it the next morning.

But I appreciate the closeness (and warmth) too much to ask for a sleep separation. However, if you're on the brink of your own sleep divorce, there are steps to prevent it.

If snoring is the problem, address it by losing weight, avoiding alcohol late at night and (after consulting your dentist) investing in a mandibular appliance (a mouthguard that keeps your tongue from blocking your airway). blocks).

And if it's a partner's twitching or duvet swelling, try a larger bed – and a second duvet.

If all else fails, make time for a chat and some snuggles each evening before you go to your separate bedroom. Staying intimate is one of the best ways to avoid a 'real' divorce.

What do Jeremy Clarkson and I have in common? Besides occasionally being older men on television, it turns out that we both suffer from hearing loss; in his case bad enough to get a hearing aid.

This could more than halve his risk of developing dementia, we know from research. And now, thanks to a team from the University of California San Diego, we also know why poor hearing is linked to dementia: it appears that the extra effort associated with trying to hear causes changes in the brain that in turn lead to to the increased risk of dementia.

Maybe the next time we meet, Jeremy and I will compare the latest ear trumpets.

Jeremy Clarkson and I both suffer from hearing loss; in his case bad enough to get a hearing aid

Who doesn't secretly long for a pill that provides the benefits of exercise without the annoying huffing and puffing?

Well, researchers at the University of Florida have now had some success with this (at least in mouse studies) with a drug called SLU-PP-332.

This targets proteins which in turn make energy-consuming tissues such as muscles more active.

The drug is an 'exercise mimetic' and does not replace exercise, but increases its impact, leading to weight loss and better fitness. The researchers think it may help maintain muscle mass as you age, when the impact of exercise typically decreases.