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People who look younger live longer
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Topic Started: Dec 15 2009, 12:57 PM (304 Views)
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flea dip
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Dec 15 2009, 12:57 PM
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Rock Star From Mars
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People who look young for their age 'live longer'
-if the opposite is true, Madonna doesn't have long for this world, hardy har har.
Unfortunately, I fall into the "looks younger than her age" group.
Very often as I was growing up, people thought, based on my looks, that I was younger than I actually was (but when I talked to people, they thought I was much older than my age).
I do not want to live longer, so I hope this study is not true. I'm hoping I drop dead sooner rather than later.
Here's the article:- People blessed with youthful faces are more likely to live to a ripe old age than those who look more than their years, work shows.
Danish scientists say appearance alone can predict survival, after they studied 387 pairs of twins.
The researchers asked nurses, trainee teachers and peers to guess the age of the twins from mug shots.
Those rated younger-looking tended to outlive their older-looking sibling, the British Medical Journal reports.
Survival advantage
The researchers also found a plausible biological explanation for their results.
Key pieces of DNA called telomeres, which indicate the ability of cells to replicate, are also linked to how young a person looks.
A telomere of shorter length is thought to signify faster ageing and has been linked with a number of diseases.
In the study, the people who looked younger had longer telomeres.
All of the twins were in their 70s, 80s or 90s when they were photographed.
Over a seven-year follow-up the researchers, led by Professor Kaare Christensen of the University of Southern Denmark, found that the bigger the difference in perceived age within a pair, the more likely it was that the older-looking twin died first.
The age, sex and professional background of the assessors made no difference to any of the results.
Professor Christensen said it might be that people who have had a tougher life are more likely to die early - and their life is reflected in their face.
The researchers told the BMJ: "Perceived age, which is widely used by clinicians as a general indication of a patient's health, is a robust biomarker of ageing that predicts survival among those aged over 70."
Professor Tim Spector, a UK expert who has been doing his own twin research, said: "We are also finding this in our study.
"It's probably a combination of genes plus environment over a lifetime that are important."
He said the findings also show that people are good at assessing how well someone is and that doctors should eyeball their patients.
"If a patient looks older than their years then perhaps they should be more concerned," he said.
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Rayca
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Dec 15 2009, 01:46 PM
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- flea dip
- Dec 15 2009, 12:57 PM
Interesting article but Flea, you were kidding, right?
We want you around FOREVER. You fall into the: I can never die category because you have to take care of this site.
Happy Holidays!!
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flea dip
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Dec 15 2009, 02:18 PM
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Rock Star From Mars
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- Rayca
- Dec 15 2009, 01:46 PM
Interesting article but Flea, you were kidding, right? We want you around FOREVER. You fall into the: I can never die category because you have to take care of this site. Happy Holidays!!
I was being serious, but I hope I didn't bring you down.
I just sent you a private message via the board's personal message system explaining some things to you, so if you go to the top of the forum and click on the link that says "Inbox," you'll be able to find my message there.
Happy holidays to you as well. 
To get the thread back on topic: at some point, I must have started to look older to people, because when I was in my late 20s, I remember some teen kid in a store at the mall calling me "Ma'am."
Being called "Ma'am" when I was only 26 or 27 made me feel old.
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Melissa
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Dec 15 2009, 03:23 PM
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Evil Admin Extraordinaire™
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I'll be 27 in February and look like I'm still 16 or 17. My mom, as I stated in another thread will be 62, and still looks like she's in her 40s (she'd look even younger if she dyed her hair regularly). It's all in the genes. Me and my mom will both live to be 100, if this article is correct.
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Mihoshi Marie
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Dec 16 2009, 03:38 AM
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I don't know how long I will live. My mom is in her early forties and looks pretty young, but has health problems. My maternal grandfather also looks fairly young for his age. I really hope he lives for a long time. I would also like to live to an old age, if I have to live, which is kind of a weird thing to say.
I hope you change your mind someday, Flea.
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flea dip
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Jan 13 2010, 07:33 PM
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Rock Star From Mars
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I might rename this the "Life Span" thread.
Related article: If Your Name Begins With "D," You May Die Younger- By Deborah Huso
A new study suggests that the first letter in your name could be linked to your longevity. If your name starts with “A,” then you probably have no cause for concern, but if your name begins with “D,” study authors suggest the letter’s symbolic significance could result in you dying sooner than your peers, reports the Daily Mail.
Is it all hogwash?
Not necessarily. The study, conducted by researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit and published in the peer-reviewed journal "Death Studies" this month, examined the relationship between the first letters of a person’s name and his or her time of death.
The study examined two groups of people -- professional athletes as well as doctors and lawyers. “In each sport, athletes whose first names began with the letter D lived fewer years than those whose names collectively began with E to Z,” said study authors Ernest Abel and Michael Kruger, both of whom have been involved in several similar statistical studies in the past, including one that indicated baseball players with nicknames live longer than those without.
The researchers reviewed the lifespans of more than 10,000 athletes and professionals, focusing specifically on those whose names began with A, B, C or D -- letters associated with the grading system in American schools. The study showed those with A names substantially outlived those with D names. Researchers suggest that because D is associated with poor academic performance, those with D names are more apt to suffer from lower self-esteem, making them more prone to disease. However, the most concrete finding really isn’t all that striking. Athletes whose names began with D had a median survival age of 68.1 years, while those with names beginning with letters E to Z, which have no grade correlation, had median survival age of 69.9 years.
That’s not to say one should consider the psychology of names pure bunk. Countless studies have been conducted over the years indicating that one’s name can play a significant role in one’s self-esteem as well as how a person is perceived by others. For example, a well-known study published in the "Journal of Educational Psychology" in 1973, showed that elementary school teachers were prone to give higher grades to students with desirable names than to their counterparts with less common names, such as “Bertha” and “Elmer,” regardless of the quality of the students’ work.
Don’t sweat it if your name starts with “D,” but if you’re flipping through a baby name book searching for the perfect moniker to bestow on the newest addition to your family, don’t entirely discount the power and meaning of names.
More About Names and Longevity: Life Expectancy Surprising Signs You'll Live Longer Baby Names for This Decade and Next
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