Age-liars and birthday-deniers... you'd best learn a thing or two from those who are young at heart. People who feel younger than their actual chronological age may live longer than those who feel older than they truly are, a new study says.

    Perceived age might play a role in more than just how you feel. Results from the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that people who feel a year or more older than they truly are could have around 41 percent greater risk for death.

    University College London researchers looked at nearly 6,500 older adults, with an average age of 65.8 for the study. Around 70 percent of the subjects felt younger than they were, about a quarter felt their precise age and just under 5 percent felt a year or more older than they were, when asked "How old do you feel you are?"

    Those who felt older than they were had a higher death rate after a follow-up period of 99 months. While just 14.3 and 18.5 percent of people who felt younger or felt their age, respectively, died during those 99 months, 24.6 percent of those who felt aged beyond their years had died.

    The authors say more research is needed on the topic, but suggest it could be that those who feel "young at heart" have healthier behaviors and more resilience, giving them a stronger will to live. "Self-perceived age has the potential to change, so interventions may be possible. Individuals who feel older than their actual age could be targeted with health messages promoting positive health behaviors and attitudes toward aging," the authors write in the study.

    There you have it. Age really should be treated as just a number.     

Words to Learn 相关词汇        

    按年代顺序的

    àn niándài shùnxù de

    chronological

    in the order of time     

    韧性

    rènxìng

    resilience

    ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like

    心态年轻寿命长

    谎报年龄、否认生日……想变得年轻，你最好学学那些拥有年轻心态的人。一项新的研究称，那些自我感觉比实际年龄小的人可能比那些自我感觉比实际年龄大的人更长寿。

    自我认知年龄起的作用可能远不止于你感觉如何。从《美国医学协会杂志》发表的研究结果来看，那些感觉自己比实际年龄大一岁或好几岁的人会比一般人的死亡风险高出近41%。

    伦敦大学学院的研究人员调查了近6500名平均年龄为65.8岁的老年人。在回答“您感觉自己年龄多大？”这个问题上，约70%的老年人觉得自己比实际年龄小，约15%的人认为自己符合实际年龄，而只有不到5%的人认为自己比实际年龄大一岁或好几岁。

    那些觉得自己年龄比实际大的人在接下来的99个月的随访期中死亡的可能性更高。而那些心态年轻以及心态岁数和实际年龄相当的人在接下来99个月中的死亡可能性分别只有14.3%和18.5%，而那些觉得自己比实际年纪大的人有24.6%已经在这99个月中死亡。

    作者称，还需要做更多的研究来论证这个话题，但也表示那些心态年轻的人有更健康的行为习惯及更好的抗打击力，使得他们有更加强大的生存意志。该研究作者写道：“自我感知年龄有可能改变，使得干预成为可能。可以通过给那些觉得自己比实际年龄大的人健康提醒来促进他们的健康习惯和对衰老的积极态度。”

    现在你明白了，年龄真的应该仅仅被看成一个数字。