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From the other article[1] linked inside this one, the traits that they suspect leads to this are: - optimism - resilience - perseverance - active lifestyles

From the other article[1] linked inside this one, the traits that they suspect leads to this are: - optimism - resilience - perseverance - active lifestyles - engaged lifestyles - having pursuits (like travel, reading, positive social relationships) [1] https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-they-have-in-common-elderly-sharp-cognitive https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-the...

puchatek 5y ago
I was afraid it was gonna be stuff like that. High stress levels are bad for forming memories.
Roritharr 5y ago
These kinds of studies should always come with a trigger warning: "Be aware if you are emotionally distressed when your belief in the Just-World-Fallacy is threatened." Joking aside, having grown up relatively poor and feeling compelled to put work success above everything else to ensure economic stability for my kids these things really do negatively shape my expectations for the second half my life. Not sure what to do about that.
- hereme888 5y ago
  Giving your all for the next generation is inspiring. Minimum economic stability is so important, as is being healthy and able to enjoy life with others. Don't really know what to say, except I hope that over time you're able to stick to the known foundations of body and mental health (that I know of): good sleep, aerobic exercise, healthy diet, fulfilling relationships.
- graeme 5y ago
  > Not sure what to do about that. Biggest things you can do are the basics: * Sleep as close to eight hours a night as you can * Cook healthy food * Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass * Have some combo of low intensity cardio (walking etc) and higher intensity stuff. A 7 min strength training circuit is good here The basics are surprisingly hard, the majority of north american adults flunk all of these. From your description you may be missing at least the majority. That’s ok, you have a clear priority in your life. The point is, examine that list and your own life/work schedule, and see if one of those can be improved within your existing framework. Usually this is possible for one of them and they actually work together. Improving any of these gives your body its best shot at maintaining itself over the long haul despite work stress.
  - quattrofan 5y ago
    Maintain low muscle mass? Er no strength training has many benefits including helping to maintain bone mass but also losing muscle mass as we age leads to feebleness and all the negative consequences of that. That doesn't mean pumping iron and taking steroids but just maintaining a decent level of strength.
    - xphx 5y ago
      >> Maintain (a low waist circumference) and (muscle mass)
      - mromanuk 5y ago
        The ambiguity of natural language, an hypothetical natural language future compiler (grammar checker) could get all these, Grammarly can't.
    - graeme 5y ago
      I can see how that was confusing so I changed the wording to maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass
  - kiba 5y ago
    Your advice on sleep should be modified to sleep to as close to high quality as you can. Some people are going to naturally sleep less and some more.
    - graeme 5y ago
      The gene allowing some people to sleep less is exceedingly rare. The vast majority need between 7-8 hours sleep. And for most people sleep quality improves as you sleep longer. “Sleep only high quality” is not really actionable advice unless someone is taking sleeping pills or drinking before bed or actively doing something to impair sleep quality.
      - 5y ago
- azhu 5y ago
  You have adapted your emotional processing towards the belief that work/financial success supersedes all else. This belief, and the set of beliefs underneath it, are reasonable, though incomplete. Being completely adapted to an incomplete set of beliefs is what leads to emotional/existential distress. Just add to your belief set and adapt yourself to a more complete set of beliefs.
jasode 5y ago
>, the traits that they suspect leads to this are No, you can't use the phrase "leads to this". It misinforms the reader because that's not exactly what the researchers wrote. We need to be super pedantic about this because they found correlations of personality traits but did not make the leap to say optimism, etc were the causes. For your linked article: >"The findings suggest that superagers have unique personality profiles," Rogalski said, noting that they stood out for their optimism, resilience, and perseverance – as well as active and engaged lifestyles, marked by pursuits like travel, reading, and positive social relationships. There may be another hidden confounding variable that leads to both the optimism and the superager memory performance. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding) E.g. the same researcher also wrote about rare Von Economo neurons (VENs)[1] that exist in higher quantities in the elderly that don't have early dementia and Alzheimers. They don't know if those rare VENs are present at birth. This means it could be an candidate confounding variable that causes both the optimism/resilience and protection from dementia. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801202/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801202/
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- yqx 5y ago
  There needn't even be a confounding variable, the direction of causation may simply be reversed: not personality traits -> superager, but superager -> personality traits. Sounds quite plausible to me that having a good memory at old age leads to a more active and engaged lifestyle leading to happy people that appear less neurotic and more extrovert.
rednerrus 5y ago
You need a group of people that you meet with regularly and feel connected to.

puchatek 5y ago

I was afraid it was gonna be stuff like that. High stress levels are bad for forming memories.

Roritharr 5y ago

These kinds of studies should always come with a trigger warning: "Be aware if you are emotionally distressed when your belief in the Just-World-Fallacy is threatened." Joking aside, having grown up relatively poor and feeling compelled to put work success above everything else to ensure economic stability for my kids these things really do negatively shape my expectations for the second half my life. Not sure what to do about that.

hereme888 5y ago
Giving your all for the next generation is inspiring. Minimum economic stability is so important, as is being healthy and able to enjoy life with others. Don't really know what to say, except I hope that over time you're able to stick to the known foundations of body and mental health (that I know of): good sleep, aerobic exercise, healthy diet, fulfilling relationships.
graeme 5y ago
> Not sure what to do about that. Biggest things you can do are the basics: * Sleep as close to eight hours a night as you can * Cook healthy food * Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass * Have some combo of low intensity cardio (walking etc) and higher intensity stuff. A 7 min strength training circuit is good here The basics are surprisingly hard, the majority of north american adults flunk all of these. From your description you may be missing at least the majority. That’s ok, you have a clear priority in your life. The point is, examine that list and your own life/work schedule, and see if one of those can be improved within your existing framework. Usually this is possible for one of them and they actually work together. Improving any of these gives your body its best shot at maintaining itself over the long haul despite work stress.
- quattrofan 5y ago
  Maintain low muscle mass? Er no strength training has many benefits including helping to maintain bone mass but also losing muscle mass as we age leads to feebleness and all the negative consequences of that. That doesn't mean pumping iron and taking steroids but just maintaining a decent level of strength.
  - xphx 5y ago
    >> Maintain (a low waist circumference) and (muscle mass)
    - mromanuk 5y ago
      The ambiguity of natural language, an hypothetical natural language future compiler (grammar checker) could get all these, Grammarly can't.
  - graeme 5y ago
    I can see how that was confusing so I changed the wording to maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass
- kiba 5y ago
  Your advice on sleep should be modified to sleep to as close to high quality as you can. Some people are going to naturally sleep less and some more.
  - graeme 5y ago
    The gene allowing some people to sleep less is exceedingly rare. The vast majority need between 7-8 hours sleep. And for most people sleep quality improves as you sleep longer. “Sleep only high quality” is not really actionable advice unless someone is taking sleeping pills or drinking before bed or actively doing something to impair sleep quality.
    - 5y ago
azhu 5y ago
You have adapted your emotional processing towards the belief that work/financial success supersedes all else. This belief, and the set of beliefs underneath it, are reasonable, though incomplete. Being completely adapted to an incomplete set of beliefs is what leads to emotional/existential distress. Just add to your belief set and adapt yourself to a more complete set of beliefs.

jasode 5y ago

>, the traits that they suspect leads to this are No, you can't use the phrase "leads to this". It misinforms the reader because that's not exactly what the researchers wrote. We need to be super pedantic about this because they found correlations of personality traits but did not make the leap to say optimism, etc were the causes. For your linked article: >"The findings suggest that superagers have unique personality profiles," Rogalski said, noting that they stood out for their optimism, resilience, and perseverance – as well as active and engaged lifestyles, marked by pursuits like travel, reading, and positive social relationships. There may be another hidden confounding variable that leads to both the optimism and the superager memory performance. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding) E.g. the same researcher also wrote about rare Von Economo neurons (VENs)[1] that exist in higher quantities in the elderly that don't have early dementia and Alzheimers. They don't know if those rare VENs are present at birth. This means it could be an candidate confounding variable that causes both the optimism/resilience and protection from dementia. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801202/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801202/

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
yqx 5y ago
There needn't even be a confounding variable, the direction of causation may simply be reversed: not personality traits -> superager, but superager -> personality traits. Sounds quite plausible to me that having a good memory at old age leads to a more active and engaged lifestyle leading to happy people that appear less neurotic and more extrovert.

rednerrus 5y ago

You need a group of people that you meet with regularly and feel connected to.