The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study
Hudson Street Press, March 2011
For years we have been told to make lists and obsessively monitor when we're angry, what we eat, how much we worry, and how often we go to the gym. So why isn't everyone healthy? Now, based on the most extensive study of long life ever conducted, The Longevity Project reveals what really matters across the long run -- the personality traits, relationships, experiences, and career paths that naturally keep you vital.
Gathering key new information and using modern research methods to study 1,500 Californians across eight decades, health scientists Dr. Howard S. Friedman and Dr. Leslie R. Martin bust many old, dead-end myths. For instance,
- People do not die from working long hours at a challenging job -- many who worked the hardest lived the longest.
- Getting and staying married is not the magic ticket to long life, especially if you're a woman.
- It's not the happy-go-lucky who thrive -- it's the prudent and persistent who flourish through the years. See why.
Hardcover | ISBN: 9781594630750 | Publication Date: March 2011
Reviews:
"The Longevity Project uses one of the most famous studies in
psychology to answer the question of who lives longest--and why. The answers will surprise you. This is an important -- and deeply fascinating -- book."
-Malcolm Gladwell
"A compelling and objective assessment of character traits
associated
with longevity. Only a handful of studies in this field last long
enough to give meaningful results, and even fewer remain significant
after their primary investigators have passed away. Friedman and Martin
have resurrected a remarkable achievement with surprising conclusions.
I learned a lot from this book."
-Andrew Weil, M.D. , author of You Can't Afford to Get Sick
"Is living a long life associated with being
married, daily jogs, having a pet, or faith in God? Incredibly, no one
until now has chronicled the
findings from the monumental century-long longevity project for
the general public. At last, with lucid
prose and rigorous yet crystal- clear analysis, professors Friedman and
Martin have succeeded beautifully."
-Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph. D., author of The How of
Happiness
"Want to live longer? As this fascinating analysis shows, much of
the common advice is wrong. The Longevity Project describes,
in its lively and accessible pages, the traits most common to those who
lived long lives -- and how to shape them in yourself."
-Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., author of Generation Me
"The surprises in this fascinating book begin in the introduction
and
don't let up. I found it chock-full of compelling evidence that is both
counterintuitive and immediately beneficial to
readers. The authors explain eloquently not
only what we know about the keys to longevity, but how we know it --
and
how readers can test themselves as they go along. This wise, warm book
will delight and inform readers of all ages."
-Carol Tavris, Ph.D., co-author of Mistakes Were Made (But
Not By
Me)
"The Longevity Project is about why some thrive well into old
age while others become ill and die young . . . Anyone interested in
living a longer and healthier life ought to read this terrific book."
-Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Social
Ecology at the University of
California, Irvine, and author of The Myth of Repressed Memory
