Smile Wide, Live Longer!
April 10th, 2010
Great news to report this Friday afternoon! People with big, happy smiles may actually live longer than those who don’t, according to a recent study conducted at Wayne State University.
Dr.Bardawil knows that positive emotion has been linked to both physical and mental health, but researchers at the university did something interesting: they used the Baseball Register to review close-up smiles of 230 players who began their baseball careers prior to 1950 by studying their smile intensity (ranging from wide smile, no smile and partial smile).
The researchers then took into account other factors associated with life longevity, such as body mass index, career length and, believe it or not, college attendance. They found that players who weren’t smiling only lived to the average age of 72.9 years. Players with partial smiles lived to be 75. Those with big, wide smiles, however, lived on average to be 79.9 years old!
Dr.Bardawil knows that positive emotion has been linked to both physical and mental health, but researchers at the university did something interesting: they used the Baseball Register to review close-up smiles of 230 players who began their baseball careers prior to 1950 by studying their smile intensity (ranging from wide smile, no smile and partial smile).
The researchers then took into account other factors associated with life longevity, such as body mass index, career length and, believe it or not, college attendance. They found that players who weren’t smiling only lived to the average age of 72.9 years. Players with partial smiles lived to be 75. Those with big, wide smiles, however, lived on average to be 79.9 years old!
