Happy People Live Longer [VIDEO]

It's true, happy people do live longer, 35% longer to be exact. In the study that followed those being researched for 20 years, the study revealed that people with a more positive outlook on life and had healthy positive relationships with their spouses, children, family and friends fared far better than those who were slightly more cynical and had little to no relationships with close family and friends. The study that was published in Tuesday's National Academy of Sciences.

The British study of 3,853 participants ages 52 to 79 rated their feelings at different times. Five years later, the researchers recorded the number of those who died and took into consideration  several factors like, age, gender, health, wealth, and marital status. These further determining factors took into account that the participants that made an income of over one-hundred-thousand dollars per year were 10% happier than those who only made less than thirty-five-thousand dollars per year. So, making more money increases happiness by 10% but did not really extend their lifespan.

This approach “gets closer to measuring how people actually feel” rather than relying on recollections or general questions about well-being, says epidemiologist Andrew Steptoe, a psychology professor at University College in London, who co-authored the study.

How happy a person is at any point in time, he says, is a product of “some background disposition; some people tend to be happier than others,” but also “what they are doing, who they are with, and other features of that point in time. Both are important.”

source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Participants in the study that earned less than 35 thousand a year measured in at 65% happiness, while the 100 thousand dollar a year study group fared far better on the happy scale at 80%. What does this all mean? I think that more income does buy a little more happiness but as far as living longer those who banked 100K plus a year only tended to live 10% longer but were 15% happier than their counterparts. On a side note those that made more money annually tended to be healthier because they eat better and healthier foods that those under the 35K a year cloud. Now ask yourself, is it worth all the trouble and stress it takes to make 100K a year to live from age 70 to 77? And finally do you think money buys happiness?