Instapundit links to a research report at UPI.com which finds this amazing relationship.
Seniors with higher levels of mental resilience are 53% less likely to die within the next 10 years than those with the lowest levels, researchers found.
The participants' mental resilience was determined using scales that measured qualities like perseverance, calmness, sense of purpose and self-reliance, researchers said.
Even with chronic health problems or an unhealthy lifestyle, people with high mental resilience remained 46% and 38% less likely to die within 10 years than those with the least fortitude.
"This study is unique in establishing a statistically significant association between psychological resilience and all-cause mortality in the older and retired population, even after accounting for confounding factors," the researchers concluded in a university news release.
Keep your cool and outlive your enemies. As I told a consulting client some decades ago, when asked how I'd respond to a whining employee who self-reported mental problems? My tough love response was: "Cope, dammit, the rest of us have to."
