Sharfstein 1

Bobby Sharfstein

Lindsay Ferrara

ENGL 1001

15 December 2023

Multimodal Essay

While some things surrounding our health are predetermined and unchangeable, we are

able to not only increase our quality of life as individuals, but also our longevity through

adaptations in our lifestyles. We have always been told a similar story about our health and that

story is not completely inaccurate. What you have been told your whole life about diet and

exercising being some of the roots to living a healthier life is true, but there's more than one way

to improve your quality of life. I want to delve into what we can do aside from just exercise and

dieting to improve our quality of life and longevity. While exercise and diet is an extremely

viable way to improve both your health and longevity, there's a variety of ways to enhance your

quality of life such as incorporating small adaptations in one's lifestyle allowing an individual to

maintain a higher quality of life. These adaptations include how social life and mental health

have an immense impact on overall health and longevity, how a key piece of longevity and

overall health is consistency, and why geography plays a larger role than most would think in

longevity.

Maintaining both your mental health and social standing is pertinent when it comes to

your physical well being. Many view mental health as completely unrelated to your physical

health, this is inaccurate. Mental health and physical health along with social standing and

physical health have a symbiotic relationship. When your mental health and or social standing

declines then your overall health will diminish as well. This premise is discussed in the article
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“The Interface of Physical and Mental Health - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric

Epidemiology.” in which Doherty states “People living with mental illnesses such as depression,

bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and even anxiety disorders have worse levels of physical health,

in particular cardiovascular disease, and a shorter life expectancy than the general population”

(Doherty). In comparison with individuals who keep their mental health in check and regularly

express their mental state outwardly with loved ones or professionals, individuals who are inept

at this tend to suffer physically. The correlation between mental health and physical health is

rather clear cut, if you are in distress mentally not only will you be more susceptible to

cardiovascular disease, but this will hinder you from participating in day to day activities. The

aspect of social life playing a large role in your longevity and overall health comes into fruition

through things such as friends and familial connections. As we age we tend to rely on those

closest to us in times of medical crisis, or in dilemmas as a whole. Often our families,

occasionally friends, will act as a backbone for us in times of need. This is one aspect of why

maintaining relationships and a social life is so invaluable when it comes to not only maintaining

our mental health, but our longevity as well. Having people there for you in a time of need will

increase your chances vastly of progressing past that low point, whereas if you were isolated and

alone your chances would be severely minimized. What I personally have found intriguing when

researching the connection between both mental health and social standing with physical health

and longevity is the immense overlap amongst them.

A key piece of longevity and overall health is consistency, and consistency is not

present immediately in the case of many individuals. That's why it's invaluable to start small with

your health goals and build them up so that it is more maintainable and so that you benefit from

your lifestyle changes fully. Improving your health takes time when starting from square one so
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it's important to take each step of the process slowly. When continually implementing lifestyle

changes over a long period of time you can eventually adjust your goals accordingly. You still

want these goals to be attainable even after making progress so that you form a cycle of healthy

lifestyle changes that becomes habitual. Another key piece of why implementing healthy and

consistent lifestyle adaptations is so beneficial is because at any point an individual chooses to

enact these differences they will have an immediate impact on their overall quality of life and in

turn longevity. For example, Nancy Lamontagne did a study and wrote an article on eight healthy

habits that are directly related to longevity in which she states “The study emphasizes the role of

these lifestyle factors in reducing chronic diseases and highlights that adopting healthier habits,

even later in life, can still contribute to longevity” (Lamontagne). No matter when you choose to

adopt a healthier lifestyle it will have an impact on your life whether that be the overall state that

your body is in on a day to day basis, or even adding a number of years to your life. I believe

many individuals let their health decline to a point where they believe it is not worth reversing as

they may think the damage they have caused is irreparable, but this is not the case.

Genetics play a role in longevity, but not necessarily the way most people might think.

If you have relatives who lived extremely long that doesn't necessarily mean you will as well. It

is based on what specifically you have a chance of inheriting disease wise, and if you are more

predisposed to having something passed down to you due to your genetics. Many individuals are

more susceptible to certain diseases and idiosyncrasies in their health based on their genetics, so

when it comes to genetics specifically it is somewhat luck of the draw. Genetics have been

confirmed to play a large role in longevity through research for example Jan Vijg a medical

professional focused on genetics connection to longevity stated “the property of being

long-lived, has its natural limitation in the aging process. Longevity has a strong genetic
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component, as has become apparent from studies with a variety of organisms, from yeast to

humans.” (Vijg). There are many mammals and living beings on this planet that can be used as

research because they are somewhat comparable to humans. Through this research it has been

discovered that genetics do have a strong correlation with longevity. Whilst we do not have a

choice in who our predecessors are and what they pass on to us we do have the ability to

maximize our longevity and overall health with what we have been given. This may look

different depending on each person and how their body functions, what is practical for one

person may be the opposite for another.

Geography plays a significant role in longevity and the reasoning behind this is due to a

number of factors. The places around the globe with the longest average lifespans are called Blue

Zones, these places all have a large amount of similarities that leads them to this immense

longevity. These factors include things such as a familial ingrained cultural values, healthcare,

and environment. Among the cultures in each of these blue zones around the world a

commonality you will find is how members of a family continue to care for their loved ones even

in old age, whereas in the United States we tend to try and send the older members of our family

who can no longer care for themselves to nursing homes. These places do not provide the

individualistic care that a family member could and this is a large reason for earlier demise in the

US. Another large factor is the healthcare in these places in comparison to the US. Many of these

Blue Zones have free healthcare and that allows any individuals in need to receive treatment.

This prevents individuals from trying to weather ailments on their own due to inability to

compensate for medical assistance. In Dan Buettner's article about these Blue Zones he discusses

a point which I have previously mentioned when explaining “successful centenarians in the Blue

Zones put their families first. This means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in
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the home (it lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.). They commit to a

life partner (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy) and invest in their children with time

and love. (They’ll be more likely to care for aging parents when the time comes.)” (Buettner).

Through strong family values individuals have the ability to add a number of years onto their life

and they can do this just by being there for one another. Another key piece of why these people

in these areas live for such an extended period of time is not due to the fact that they run

triathlons or exercise everyday, but rather due to their environment which requires them to

participate in daily tasks that simulate exercise such as gardening or walking instead of driving.

Longevity and health can be associated with a multitude of components, not including

exercise and dieting, but many believe that this is false or impossible. I wanted to understand the

true scope of how individuals thought so I created a survey to assess what the data told me. I first

asked “Which of these factors do you think has the largest effect on health? Diet and exercise,

genetics, mental health, or place of origin.” I then asked “Which of these activities would you

consider the least impactful to your personal health? Spending time with friends, eating a healthy

meal, going to the gym, or meditating”. The vast majority of answers leaned towards diet and

exercise for the first answer and meditating for the second confirming my beliefs that many

individuals believe that the answer to all of their health issues and longevity is directly correlated

to diet and exercise and that something such as meditating, a mental health outlet, is not a

valuable or pertinent way to improve your physical health. This is alarming because what many

young people need to know is that there is more than one way of doing things even if you have

been told something your whole life it doesn't necessarily make that the best way of doing it. I

believe I am opening up the door for individuals to have a new perspective on both their physical
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health and longevity through external factors such genetics, mental health, social life, geography,

and consistency.
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Works Cited

Buettner, Dan. “Blue Zones: Lessons from the World’s Longest Lived.” Blue Zones: Lessons

From the World’s Longest Lived, 7 July 2016,

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1559827616637066.

Doherty, Anne M., and Fiona Gaughran. “The Interface of Physical and Mental Health - Social

Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.” SpringerLink, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 22

Feb. 2014, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-014-0847-7.

Lamontagne, Nancy. “Eight Habits for Longevity: Life-Lengthening Factors Increase Lifespan

by 24 Years.” Neuroscience News, 25 July 2023,

neurosciencenews.com/longevity-lifestyle-changes-23685/#:~:text=The%20eight%20hab

its%20are%3A%20being,and%20having%20positive%20social%20relationships.

Vijg, Jan. “Genetics of Longevity and Aging | Annual Review of Medicine.” Genetics of

Longevity and Aging, 18 Feb. 2005,

www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.med.56.082103.104617.