(1) What they like to do, (2) what kind of relationships they would like to have, both in their private life and their work life, (3) what kind of career they would like to have, and (4) lifestyle choices
Discovering one’s passion has two sides: Doing what you “like” is often said to be important, but it seems that discovering what you find “important” is more helpful in igniting passion, as this is more values-based and will contribute to self-concordance ( Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001 ; Ryff and Singer, 2008 ). Recent research (e.g., Jachimowicz et al., 2017 ) has shown that it is important that people pursue a career that is in line with what they find to be “important,” rather than engaging in activities that they “like”; it found that those who engaged in activities that they liked (feelings-oriented mindset) exhibited less passion than those who engaged in activities that they thought were important (values-oriented mindset). Thus, while it is important that people discover what they feel passionate about, ideally this passion should also be aligned with values that they hold dear, such as collaboration, equality, and honesty ( Sheldon, 2002 ).
There is, however, also a difference between harmonious and obsessive passion (for a meta-analysis, see Vallerand et al., 2003 ; Curran et al., 2015 ). People with an obsessive work passion experience more conflict between work and other areas of life, and work is more related to their self-worth ( Vallerand et al., 2003 ). Harmonious passion was shown to be related to positive outcomes such as flow and enhanced performance, whereas obsessive passion was related more to negative outcomes, such as excessive rumination and decreased vitality ( Curran et al., 2015 ). Discovering a (harmonious) passion is not always easy.
In a life-crafting intervention, questions on this area could be similar to those listed in section 1 of Table 1 , involving also life style choices. In particular, choosing a lifestyle that involves physical activity seems to be a powerful way not only to increase self-regulation and self-control (for a review see Baumeister et al., 2006 ; Oaten and Cheng, 2006 ), but also to prevent mental illness, foster positive emotions, buffer individuals against the stresses of life, and help people thrive when they have experienced adversity ( Faulkner et al., 2015 , p. 207).
In order to achieve a match between values and passion, it is important to become aware of one’s current habits and competencies as a first step in changing/adapting (cf., Schippers et al., 2014 ). Being aware of the habits you would like to change is important in promoting positive behavioral change ( Holland et al., 2006 ; Graybiel and Smith, 2014 ). Since most of our daily behavior is habitual, and this is usually functional in that it allows us to perform many tasks with minimum cognitive effort, but this same mechanism also makes habits hard to break ( Jager, 2003 ). Being aware of our habits and reflecting on them can be a first step in breaking them ( Schippers and Hogenes, 2011 ; Schippers et al., 2014 ); implementation intentions (i.e., if-then plans: “If situation Y is encountered, then I will initiate goal-directed behavior X!”) have also been shown to help in breaking old habits and forming new ones ( Holland et al., 2006 ). Many people have habits they would like to change (relating, for example, to eating behaviors, physical health, or substance use). However, it has been shown that the effect of good intentions such as New Year’s resolutions is very minimal ( Marlatt and Kaplan, 1972 ; Pope et al., 2014 ) and that it is the extent to which people have self-concordant goals, coupled with implementation intentions, that leads to successful changes in behavior ( Mischel, 1996 ; Koestner et al., 2002 ). Self-concordant goals are personal goals that are pursued out of intrinsic interest and are also congruent with people’s identity. Research has shown that if people pursue goals because they align with their own values and interests, rather than because others urge them to pursue them, they typically exhibit greater well-being ( Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001 ). This was shown to be true across many cultures ( Sheldon et al., 2004 ). In a life-crafting intervention, questions on this area could be similar to those listed in section 2 of Table 1 .
Research shows that people with a strong social network live longer and are healthier and happier ( Demir et al., 2015 ; Haslam et al., 2016 ). This network does not necessarily have to be very big, and it seems that, as one grows older, the quality of the relationships in this network becomes more important than the quantity ( Carmichael et al., 2015 ). Recent research places more emphasis on the quality of relationships, specifically showing that quality in terms of the social and emotional dimensions of relationships is related to mental well-being ( Hyland et al., 2019 ). The quality of the network has also been shown to be helpful during a transition to college ( Pittman and Richmond, 2008 ). Although at first sight it may seem odd to think about what kind of acquaintances and friends one would like to have, it may pay off to think about this carefully. Certain kinds of relationships, so called high-maintenance relationships, require a lot of time and energy ( Schippers and Hogenes, 2011 ; Fedigan, 2017 ) and often are characterized by negative interactions that can even influence self-regulation ( Finkel et al., 2006 ). It seems important that in general people seek out interaction with others who are supportive and from which they receive energy rather than those that cost energy. In a life-crafting intervention, questions on this area could be similar to those listed in section 3 of Table 1 . Practical questions in the intervention in this respect could be: think about your current friends and acquaintances. What kind of relationships energize you? What kind of relationships require energy? Why is that? What kind of friends and acquaintances do you need? What kind of friends and acquaintances would you like to have in the future? What does your ideal family life and broader social life look like?
Work is an important part of life. For many it is important to have a job that suits them, and a job which they feel passionate about and from which they can get energy (see Werner et al., 2016 ; Downes et al., 2017 ). However, research on mental illness prevails the literature in occupational health psychology, despite a call for a shift toward more research into positive psychology as antipode for work-related health problems such as job burnout. Especially in times where employees are required to be proactive and responsible for their own professional development, and to commit to high quality performance standards, it is important to think about activities that energize people and make them feel engaged with their work ( Bakker et al., 2008 ; Schippers and Hogenes, 2011 ). Relatedly, research on job crafting shows that people can actively enhance the personal meaning of their work and make it more enjoyable by changing cognitive, task, or relational aspects to shape interactions and relationships with others at work ( Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001 ). Consequently, it is not always the job itself but the meaning you give to it that is important ( Demerouti et al., 2015 ). It is also important to think about when and where you do each particular task, in order to manage your daily energy ( Wessels et al., 2019 ).
It should be noted, however, that it is also important to see work in relation to other areas of life. Christensen (2010) noted that many of his contemporaries ended up working 70-h working weeks and also were often divorced and estranged from their children over time. They could not imagine that this end result was a deliberate choice, so it seems important to choose the kind of person you want to become not only in your career but also in other areas of life ( Christensen, 2010 ). This also means making strategic decisions about how to allocate your time and energy, instead of letting daily hassles make these decisions for you ( Christensen, 2017 ). In a life-crafting intervention, participants could be asked to think about what they would ideally like to do in their job, and what kinds of people they might be working with, either directly or indirectly. They could be asked to reflect on their education and their career, and to consider what they feel to be important in a job and what their ideal colleagues would be like. The questions would thus be similar in nature to those shown in section 4 of Table 1 .
Of course, some people choose a job that they do not necessarily like a lot but then make sure their leisure time is filled with meaningful activities ( Berg et al., 2010 ), and leisure crafting has been shown to make up to a certain extent for having few opportunities for job crafting. So weighing up the balance between work life and leisure activities and making conscious decisions in this respect seems very important.
As people are able to think about and fantasize a future ( Oettingen et al., 2018 ), it is key that the future they envisage is one that is attractive to them. Likewise it is vital they formulate plans of how to achieve their desired future (implementation intentions) and contrast this in their minds with an undesired future ( Oettingen and Gollwitzer, 2010 ; Oettingen et al., 2013 ). In a university context, and more generally in order to stay engaged, it is important that people choose goals that are self-concordant. It has been shown that if people formulate such goals implicitly by visualizing their best possible self, this can be very powerful and has a stronger effect on well-being than exercises such as gratitude letters ( Sheldon and Lyubomirsky, 2006 ). Other research has shown that writing about the best possible self in three domains—personal, relational, and professional—leads to increased optimism ( Meevissen et al., 2011 ). A meta-analysis showed that best possible self was a particularly powerful intervention in terms of enhancing optimism ( Malouff and Schutte, 2017 ). If this optimism is also turned into concrete plans for the future, there is an increased chance that this positive envisioned future will become a reality (cf., Schippers et al., 2015 ).
Based on the theorizing above, it should be stressed that in the intervention students formulate goals that they find important, not ones that others (parents, peers, or friends) find important or that are pursued solely for reasons of status. In the instructions in the intervention, the students are advised to choose goals that they think are important and want to pursue and not to choose goals that others (parents, peers, and friends) think are important. Otherwise, they will live someone else’s life. In order to make sure that they do not choose goals that will be detrimental to themselves or others, they are also advised to not describe an ideal life that includes harming themselves or others.
Additionally, it is also important that people imagine the future they are likely to face if they do not do anything . This represents a goal-framing effect, or the finding that people are more likely to take action when they are confronted with the possible consequences of not doing so ( Tversky and Kahneman, 1981 ). It might be useful to ask participants to visualize both a desirable and an undesirable future and to get them to contrast the two (see Oettingen, 2012 ; Brodersen and Oettingen, 2017 ). This would be a form of “metacognitive self-regulatory strategy of goal pursuit” ( Duckworth et al., 2013 , p. 745; cf. Schippers et al., 2013 ; see also Schippers et al., 2015 ). Other research has shown that positive “deliberate mental time travel” (or MTT) was related to a significant increase in happiness but not when the MTT was negative or neutral. However, neutral MTT was related to a reduction in stress ( Quoidbach et al., 2009 ). In the intervention (see also Table 1 , section 5), participants are asked what their future would look like if they did not change anything. What would their life look like 5–10 years down the road?
After finishing the elements as described above, it is important for intervention participants to formulate concrete goals and plans. In the meta-analysis undertaken by Koestner et al. (2002) , it was concluded that it is important for personal goal setting to be combined with if-then plans. Self-concordance—the feeling that people pursue goals because they fit with their own values and interests—and goal attainment plans are important for goal progress ( Locke and Schippers, 2018 ). Since the rewards that come from achieving a significant life goal are often attained in the future, it is important to formulate concrete goals and also to identify the small steps toward them (see Trope and Liberman, 2003 ). While the first part of the student intervention is aimed at discovering their passions and ideas about their ideal life, the second part is much more concrete and follows the steps set out in research on goal setting, SMART goals, and if-then plans ( Oettingen et al., 2013 , 2018 ). The idea is that by making concrete plans and identifying obstacles (if-then plans), people are better able to visualize their desired future and will be less tempted to engage in activities that distract them from their goal ( Mischel, 1996 ; Mischel and Ayduk, 2004 ).
In this part of the intervention, ideally any obstacles to the plans will also be identified. In addition to the research on mental contrasting, which generally indicates that one should visualize both the goal and the obstacles to it (e.g., Sevincer et al., 2017 ), it is important that one should also visualize a way of overcoming those obstacles. This may be a vital element, as research has shown that mental contrasting works best for people who are very confident about succeeding ( Sevincer et al., 2017 ). The elements are outlined in Table 1 , section 6. The idea is that, based on what participants write when describing their ideal future, they then identify a number of goals (usually about six to eight), which could be personal, career, and/or social goals (e.g., Morisano et al., 2010 ; Schippers et al., 2015 ; Locke and Schippers, 2018 ). As detailed implementation plans have been shown to aid progress toward goals ( Gollwitzer, 1996 ), it is vital for participants to set down a detailed strategy for how they will achieve their goals. This part of the intervention asks participants about their motivations for their goals and gets them to consider the personal and social impact of those goals. They should also be asked to identify potential obstacles and how to overcome them and monitor progress toward the goals they have set. Participants should be instructed to be specific and concrete—for instance, to write down things that they will do weekly or daily to further their goals ( Morisano et al., 2010 ; Schippers et al., 2015 ). It may also be useful to get participants to make a concrete plan of action for the upcoming week and to make them specify for each day the hours they will spend working on the goal they have in mind.
In this part of the intervention, participants can either write down a number of goals and make them public (read them out to others) or have a photo taken to accompany a public (“I WILL…”) statement, as was the case in the RSM intervention (see the examples mentioned earlier). Prior research has found that public commitment can enhance goal attainment ( Hollenbeck et al., 1989 ). This part seems to be related to enhanced commitment to goals as a result of self-presentation ( Schienker et al., 1994 ). Shaun Tomson, a former surfing champion and inspirational speaker, invites audiences to come up with goals and 12 lines, all starting with: “I will…” These lines are spoken aloud in a group as a form of public commitment ( Tomson and Moser, 2013 ). This makes it more likely that people will be more self-regulating toward goal-attainment and will put more effort into reaching their goals, especially if they are highly committed to reaching this goal ( McCaul et al., 1987 ).
Formulating clear goals has been shown to contribute to student well-being and academic success ( Morisano et al., 2010 ; Schippers et al., 2015 , 2019 ; Locke and Schippers, 2018 ). However, this has been often neglected in education and work settings resulting in a lack of evidence based tools. The effects of goal setting on the well-being of students have hardly been tested. Recently, calls have been made for positive psychology interventions to be made part of the educational curriculum in order to teach students life skills and to combat the rising number of mental health problems such as depression (e.g., Clonan et al., 2004 ; Seligman et al., 2009 ; Schippers, 2017 ).
Informed by the theoretical frameworks of salutogenesis, embodied cognition, dynamic self-regulation, and goal-setting theory, in this paper, we outlined a life-crafting intervention in which participants complete a series of online writing exercises using expressive writing to shape their ideal future. Important elements of such an intervention that were covered are: (1) discovering values and passion, (2) reflecting on current and desired competencies and habits, (3) reflecting on present and future social life and (4) future career, (5) writing about the ideal future, (6) goal attainment plans, and finally (7) public commitment to goals.
The idea is to use the fantasized ideal future to deduce goals and formulate a strategy to reach these goals. Finally, participants commit to their intentions by having a photo taken to accompany their goal statement, which is then made public. We described the key elements of this intervention and outlined the theoretical rationale for each of these elements. As previous research has shown that developing life skills, such as being able to set goals and make plans to achieve them (i.e., goal setting), increases the resilience, well-being, and study success of students ( Schippers et al., 2015 , 2019 ; Locke and Schippers, 2018 ), it may be important to make this intervention available to a wider population.
As research shows that students in higher education are increasingly experiencing psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and burn-out ( Gilchrist, 2003 ; Snyder et al., 2016 ), an add-on to the goal-setting program as described above is recommended. Rapid developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), especially areas such as emotion recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning have great potential to aid students experiencing study-related mental health problems ( Kavakli et al., 2012 ; Oh et al., 2017 ). For example, a goal-setting exercise could be enhanced by incorporating a digital coach in the form of a goal-setting chatbot. With this type of intervention, students are given immediate, personalized feedback after their writing assignments. After two longer writing assignments, which are part of the curriculum, the chatbot can help students to by asking questions on specific topics ( Fulmer et al., 2018 ). For instance, through personalized questions and feedback the chatbot could stimulate students to regularly reflect on their progress toward reaching a certain goal (“Did I invest enough time into my goals? What could I do to improve this? Which smaller sub-goals could help me to achieve my objective? What obstacles do I face? What ways do I see to overcome them?”). Depending on the answers the chatbot could also provide the students with different strategies. In addition, the chatbot can remind students of their goals and objectives during the year.
The expectation is that this addition to the intervention will allow students to reflect better on their own goals, so that a positive effect on student well-being can be expected and more serious problems can be prevented. What is also innovative is that the chatbot can ask additional questions about the students’ well-being. This gives the chatbot an important role in identifying possible problems. For students who have no problems or whose problems are minor, setting goals and receiving online feedback and coaching will be sufficient. In cases of more severe problems, the chatbot can offer more intensive coaching, or can refer them to the university’s psychological support or other professional services if necessary. In summary, the chatbot could provide a better connection between goal setting and the needs of the individual student and could help to integrate the life-crafting intervention into early stages of students’ academic career and can also deliver mental health care for students. Moreover, it could help integrate the life-crafting intervention with interactional forms of mental health care provided by the chatbot, thereby possibly increasing its effectiveness. In addition, goal diaries might form a way to provide insights into whether students are able to achieve important goals. Such diaries could also be used to assess their level of happiness and well-being and might be easily integrated into the interaction with the chatbot.
Next to examining how promising the intervention is in terms of its effects on students, future research could look at the effects of the life-crafting intervention in organizations. Prior research has shown that the effects from positive psychology interventions in organizations are promising ( Meyers et al., 2012 ). The relationship between different areas of life and decision making with regard to how to spend one’s time seems to be key ( Menzies, 2005 ; Schippers and Hogenes, 2011 ). Researchers could also examine what role life crafting might play at the team level.
Despite the obvious upside of experiencing meaning in life and having life goals as described in this paper, many people have difficulty choosing between the seemingly endless number of possibilities. The good news is that it is in principle never too late to find a purpose in life, although recent research suggests that it may be most beneficial to find a direction in life earlier rather than later (see Steger et al., 2009 ; Bundick, 2011 ; Hill and Turiano, 2014 ). It seems that interventions of the kind we have described above may be particularly helpful when one is entering into a new phase of life, such as when starting one’s study or just before entering the job market (see Kashdan and Steger, 2007 ).
The problem so far has been that most interventions are not easily taken to scale (for an exception see Schippers et al., 2015 ). Given the relatively low amount of costs and administrative work that the implementation of the outlined life crafting intervention entails, especially when compared to the potential benefits, we recommend its inclusion in student’s curriculums. Getting many (young) people to take part in an online life crafting intervention may be an important step in achieving not only higher academic performance, but also better well-being, happiness, health, and greater longevity (see Schippers et al., 2015 ). Using technology to assist with life crafting via a goal-setting intervention seems to be a particularly promising avenue as this is an approach that can be easily scaled up. Ideally then, these scalable and affordable interventions should not be regarded as an extra-curricular activity; it would be advisable to make them a formal part of the curriculum for all students. In a work context, employees could also benefit as this type of activity might be something that companies could easily offer. In short, life-crafting is about (1) finding out what you stand for (i.e., values and passions), (2) finding out how to make it happen (i.e., goal-attainment plans), and (3) telling someone about your plans (i.e., public commitment). Concluding, it seems that life crafting is about taking control of one’s life and finding purpose. Based on recent findings, it would be well-advised for many of us to carve out time to do an evidence-based life-crafting intervention.
MS has written the draft of the manuscript. NZ provided important intellectual input at all stages and helped to develop, review, and revise the manuscript.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors would like to thank the members of the Erasmus Centre for Study and Career Success ( https://www.erim.eur.nl/erasmus-centre-for-study-and-career-success/ ) and Christina Wessels for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
1 see https://www.rsm.nl/iwilleveryone/ .
A student, participating in the intervention, described its effect on him as follows (see also Singeling, 2017 ).
“I studied, or at least I attempted to study, a lot of different things before I came here. But usually I stopped halfway through. And then I ended up here and I liked the courses well enough, but once again it was completely unplanned. I came here because, well, it was expected of me to finish some kind of university course.
When I got here, and all the “I WILL” stuff [life crafting/goal setting] happened, I thought it was a complete and utter joke. I thought: who needs this kind of stuff? Between the second and the third [trimester], so towards the end of the second really, I started to realize that: you know those silly goals I put down? I’m actually close to completing some of those. That got me inspired to apply for the position of mentor for the BA business skills course. And in the third year, for my minor, I took a teaching class. A few of my students who started off basically slacking through everything, they are taking their assignments more seriously. Instead of doing everything the evening beforehand, they are dedicating a week beforehand. It’s tiny steps, but they are tiny steps that would not have happened without the goal setting.
Quite simply, I’m proud of the things that I have been doing, such as teaching, and I’m proud that it came through goal setting. It’s why in the end I have changed my I WILL statement: “I will help the next generation to be better.”
From this extract, it can be seen that the intervention seemed to inspire the student to be clearer about his goals, to dedicate time to them, and also to use them to help other students. Furthermore, it serves to illustrate the concept of an upward spiral ( Sheldon and Houser-Marko, 2001 ; Sekerka et al., 2012 ), where trough tiny steps (starting to study for an exam earlier) goals are attained.
Scientists can tell how fast you're aging. now, the trick is to slow it down.
Allison Aubrey
I used to flinch at the topic of aging. Is there anything we can do about the inevitable?
But recently I've been digging into a new wave of longevity research that is making it an exciting time to be an aging human — which is all of us.
It turns out, we all age at varying rates. Super-agers may have great genes, but research shows our habits and routines — everything from what we eat and how we move our bodies to who we spend our time with — matter a lot, when it comes to aging well.
Now, the next frontier is to target the basic biology of aging and come up with new interventions to slow it down.
Many scientists are optimistic that we're on the cusp of breakthroughs. Not only to help us live longer, but — more importantly — to extend the number of years we live with good health.
This is the goal of researchers at the Human Longevity Lab at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. They're recruiting study participants so they can test what kinds of interventions may slow the rate of aging. To that end, I decided to roll up my sleeve for science.
When I arrived, the first step was a quick blood draw. The Potocsnak Longevity Institute is housed on the light-filled 21st floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, overlooking Lake Michigan. It felt more like a spa than a doctor's office. I didn't anticipate the vast range of data and insights scientists could glean from a battery of tests.
Over a four-hour period, they performed more than two dozen assessments. At first it felt a bit like an annual physical. They checked my blood pressure, weight, glucose and cholesterol.
NPR's Allison Aubrey has her body composition measured inside a BodPod. Several other tests performed at the longevity lab — led by Dr. Douglas Vaughan — are used to estimate biological age. Jane Greenhalgh/NPR hide caption
NPR's Allison Aubrey has her body composition measured inside a BodPod. Several other tests performed at the longevity lab — led by Dr. Douglas Vaughan — are used to estimate biological age.
But then, the tests got a lot more interesting. Inside a small exam room, a medical assistant opened the hinge of a BodPod , a capsule that looks like a submersible. The machine assessed my body composition, determining the ratio of fatty mass to lean mass, which includes muscle. Strength is a key marker of healthy aging, helping us fend off frailty and falls.
Next, I was asked to sniff and identify a range of distinct smells — from leather to chocolate — to test olfactory function. The loss of smell can be an early sign of disease and cognitive decline . They scanned my retina and took digital images of the inside of my eyes, which can also help detect disease. And I took a memory and cognitive function test, called MOCA . Thankfully, all was healthy.
Then I went through a slew of cardiovascular health tests. They measured my endothelial function, which keeps blood flowing smoothly through the body. They looked at my heart rate variability and pulse-wave velocity, which is an indicator of stiffness of the arteries. I had electrodes placed onto my chest for an electrocardiogram.
Midway through I was feeling a bit nervous, and my mind raced to what ifs.
Of all the tests they performed, the most intriguing is the GrimAge test . This test predicts biological age. It's gauging whether your DNA age is younger, or older, than your actual age, known as chronological age. Conjure images of the Grim Reaper? Yep, that's the idea: The test can estimate how quickly, or slowly, you're aging.
To figure this out, researchers use a technique based on DNA methylation, which is a measure of modifications in our DNA. Basically, as we age, compounds called methyl groups attach to some of our DNA molecules, which can turn genes on or off. Researchers have shown that the higher the proportion of methylated DNA in certain locations, the more accelerated a person's biological age. Published research suggests this is a reliable way to predict life span and health span .
No one wants to find out they're aging faster than their peers, right? But here's the exciting part. Our biological age may be malleable. The hope is that we can slow down our rate of aging — by making changes to lifestyle. Down the line, there may be anti-aging pills or other interventions.
Dr. Douglas Vaughan and Dr. John Wilkins of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Potocsnak Longevity Institute. Allison Aubrey/NPR hide caption
Dr. Douglas Vaughan and Dr. John Wilkins of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Potocsnak Longevity Institute.
For researchers, the GrimAge test isn't just a way to estimate DNA age. It's a tool to study whether interventions can alter it.
"That's the big ray of optimism that comes through all of this — the possibility that we can slow down aging and extend the health span of people," says Dr. Douglas Vaughan , director of the Longevity Institute. Health span is the number of years we live with good health. "It can be changed very rapidly in experimental models and probably in people, too," he says.
For example, smoking has a very strong effect on methylation. "Tens of thousands of locations gain methylation when you smoke," explains researcher Steve Horvath , who developed the epigenetic clock used as part of the GrimAge test. People with obesity also exhibit higher methylation at certain locations. "Conversely, if you eat vegetables, if you are lean, if you exercise, that slows methylation age," he explains.
Now, of course, it's long been known that smoking and eating poorly are bad for you. But researchers can now test specific interventions to see if it's possible to move the needle.
Vaughan's deep interest in aging took off when he identified a distinct genetic variant in an Amish community in Indiana. People who have the variant are protected from diabetes and have healthier cardiovascular systems compared to people who don't. In the laboratory, when Vaughan engineered mice to have only a 50% level of a protein associated with this mutation, their life spans increased by nearly fourfold. "This was a eureka moment," he says.
He tells his current medical students that in their careers they will prescribe interventions to slow down biological aging in their patients.
"I don't know exactly what that's going to be. It might be a drug. It might be a lifestyle intervention, for all I know it might be gene editing," Vaughan says. "But there are going to be ways that we are going to slow down this process and give people a longer health span."
People who live in the upscale Chicago neighborhood where the Human Longevity Lab is located can expect to live a much longer, healthier life compared to people who live just a few miles away. Vaughan wants to help close this gap.
"I'm worried about the poor soul in south Chicago who has a life expectancy of 55, compared to 92 in the neighborhood where we're standing right now," he says. A stunning difference of more than 30 years. (You can check out life expectancy in your ZIP code here .)
7 habits to live a healthier life, inspired by the world's longest-lived communities.
A lot of factors play into this life expectancy gap including poverty, housing, stress and crime, which can all work against health span.
Vaughan and his collaborators are enrolling people from a wide range of ages, ethnic groups, neighborhoods and socioeconomic status to see what works to slow biological aging for everybody.
"There are lots of people who've been dealt a bad hand with regard to aging," Vaughan says. Their goal is to find affordable, evidence-based interventions that can benefit everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status.
For example, there's interest in studying stress, which Vaughan says could be "part of the reason for the discrepancy in the life expectancy in different neighborhoods of Chicago." To study this, he could measure people's biological age at baseline, have them try a stress-reduction program, and test again to see if their results changed.
Vaughan is also interested in studying people with chronic HIV, who tend to age at an accelerated rate. A charitable gift from a Chicago family with a shared interest helped launch the institute. Vaughan's team is considering a range of interventions to test whether they can slow down aging in this population.
"It might be weight training , it might be intermittent fasting, it might be dietary manipulations, it might be drugs that are available now that might have anti-aging effects," Vaughan explains, citing the diabetes drug metformin.
Longevity and health span research is attracting lots of funding and attention, from places like the Hevolution Foundation , which provides grants and early stage investments, and Altos Labs , a biotechnology company, founded by Dr. Rick Klausner , which is investigating ways to reprogram or rejuvenate cells.
Dozens of groups have signaled their intent to compete in the $101 million X-PRIZE global competition focused on treatments that support healthy longevity — everything from new drugs or supplements, to devices, to repurposing old drugs for new uses.
"Teams have to come to the starting line and we're going to set up the frameworks by which they prove their therapeutic works," says XPRIZE's Jamie Justice , who is also a researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Fortunately, my GrimAge score came back younger than my actual age, though I did get some surprises. I learned that my body composition isn't optimal. Turns out, I need to build more lean muscle mass, which is pretty common as we age — especially for women.
With muscle mass, if you don't use it, you lose it . After the age of 30 to 35, muscle starts to slowly decline. And after age 65 or so, this loss accelerates. So it's never too soon to start building a reserve. My goal for this year is to build muscle through resistance training and an optimal diet. And also, to reduce stress.
My experience in the longevity study has motivated me to get started on a new project: How To Thrive As You Age. We'll have more stories on healthy aging interventions coming soon.
As part of this project, we hope you'll share your healthy aging tips with us . What habits or lifestyle hacks have you've adopted to thrive as you age? Please use this form to share your thoughts or email us at [email protected] .
Series editors Jane Greenhalgh and Carmel Wroth
How thinking like a scientist can improve your daily life.
Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of State, at his confirmation hearing on January ... [+] 11, 2017. Image credit: Office of the President-elect.
There are big problems that come up in our lives, affecting our hopes and dreams for ourselves, our family, and even our very lives. How are you going to pay for your child's college education? Is it a better decision to buy a new car, a used car or to fix your current car one more time? When your knee starts hurting chronically, affecting what you choose to do in your daily life, should you have the knee replacement surgery? And if your doctor diagnoses you with prostate cancer, should you have the prostate removed, should you have radiotherapy or should you simply have it actively monitored?
These are hard questions, not so different from the ones many of us face in our lives. But the way we approach them, if we want the best outcomes, is the same way we'd want our government to approach the problems facing our nation today. It's also, at a fundamental level, the same way scientists approach any problem they face. It's a way each of us not only applies science to our everyday lives, but should demand that those making decisions on our behalf think scientifically as well.
Productivity can be enhanced by applying scientific principles. But scientific reasoning can help us ... [+] in a huge slew of aspects in our lives. Image credit: Hebeisen, Walter: F. W. Taylor und der Taylorismus : über das Wirken und die Lehre Taylors und die Kritik am Taylorismus. Zürich: vdf, 1999.
Each of the personal or family problems we might face appears to be unique, but there are similarities to how we'd approach them.
In all of these cases, there are a slew of commonalities.
Whether to buy a new car, used car or to repair your old car depends on a large variety of factors. ... [+] Image credit: flickr user Michael Gil.
To start, you're likely to have a gut instinct about all of these issues. Maybe you want to put aside all you possibly can and invest it into tech stocks for your child's education. Maybe you want to fix your current car, thinking that there's plenty more life in it. Maybe you want your knee replaced, just wanting the pain to end. And maybe you want to go the active monitoring route with your prostate, as the risks of losing urinary control and sexual function are too high a cost to pay.
The internet is a tremendous resource for information-gatherers of all ages and skill levels. Image ... [+] credit: Wikimedia Commons user Siamackz.
But going with your gut isn't always going to be the best approach, and you know that. Even if you have good instincts, you know that you're better off gathering as much information as you can. That means doing all the research you can into learning as much as you can about all the possible options, outcomes, and how they relate to your specific situation. It means learning the pros and cons of all the options available to you; it means carefully weighing the best evidence you can accumulate. In short, it means doing your homework to the best of your abilities, and making your decision -- that sometimes runs counter to your gut -- based on the information that you find.
Whether through libraries, archives, traditional media, the internet or other forms of new media, ... [+] independent research can be informative, but only to a point. Image credit: Washington, D.C. OWI (Office of War Information) research workers / U.S. Government.
Despite all that you can learn and all the information you can collect on your own, you'll never have as much expertise as the people who've devoted their entire lives to this. A financial planner will offer you options and advice that you most likely wouldn't have come up with on your own, with a slew of research and reasoning to back up their recommendations. A reliable, scrupulous auto mechanic can tell you whether your car is worth fixing or not in detail, while an impartial third-party expert reviewer can tell you about the value of a new/used car. Medical professionals specializing in knee replacements can tell you about whether knee replacement surgery is recommended for you or not, as they've kept up with the latest research and are more aware of the nuances as they affect your particular case than you could ever be. And not only does the same thing go for prostate cancer, but the latest research may influence your doctor's recommendation ; what they would have recommended five years ago might not be the best recommendation today. Our knowledge base grows, and as it does, the best course of action may be different.
An enlarged prostate can result in problems urinating, and prostate cancer can be lethal. But ... [+] removal of the prostate can have incredibly deleterious side effects as well. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user BruceBlaus.
That's why it's so important to not listen to an authority without the requisite expertise , but to seek out an impartial, third-party with expert knowledge. That's why it's so important to not fall victim to the trap of motivated reasoning: the easiest way to fool ourselves. It's all too easy to arrive at a position and convince ourselves it's the right/best one. Sometimes, our gut instincts are enough to do so. Sometimes, we'll do our information gathering and that will cement our positions in our minds. And sometimes, we'll find the experts who solidify that position. But we have to be open to new information, to the possibility that we've gotten it all wrong, and consider the option that there might be a better way of doing things than we've figured out so far. It's how a (scrupulous) scientist views the world , and it's one of the most challenging ways of thinking, as it requires us to constantly be questioning our assumptions and our prior conclusions.
Decades ago, many households switched from butter to margarine, believing the latter was healthier. ... [+] As new evidence accumulated, however, it was determined that trans fats, not saturated fats, were the fats that were linked to heart disease. Image credit: Bill Branson.
The trap we can all -- scientists included -- fall into is that we hate to change our minds. Once we've made a decision about what the best conclusion or course of action should be, we tend to lose our objectivity. We tend to go with the facts that support our previously-held positions, to interpret neutral facts as supporting what we already believe, and to discount or reject the facts that run counter to our opinions. It's why so many have proposed that scientists take a scientific oath , similar to the Hippocratic oath that doctors take.
The proposal for a scientific oath by Alison Hill. Image credit: screenshot from ... [+] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/scientific-oath/.
There are a lot of good points, but one stands out in particular as one that we can all apply to our lives.
I will not distort facts to promote a particular ideological agenda or financial purpose.
There are a number of pushes made recently to vilify and disempower scientists; to frame their expertise as mere opinion; to remove them from positions where they can share and make knowledge public. But it's that very expert knowledge that we all need access to if we want to make the best decisions possible. In the fight for free speech and free information, it's vital that we value the voices speaking the truths that they're best qualified to speak about. And when those voices run counter to how we're living, what decisions we've made or what we're planning on doing next, that's when it becomes most important to hear and consider that information. Even -- nay, especially -- when it's inconvenient.
Nih research matters.
May 8, 2018
At a glance.
American don’t live as long as people in most other high-income countries. Heart disease and cancer are two of the most common preventable chronic diseases in the United States. An unhealthy lifestyle increases your risk for these and other chronic diseases that can lead to an early death.
To explore the effects of healthy habits on Americans’ health and lifespan, a team of scientists led by Frank Hu at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analyzed data from more than 78,000 women and 44,000 men who participated in two nationwide surveys: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). They used other data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to estimate the distribution of lifestyle choices and death rates across the U.S. population. The research was supported in part by NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). Results were published online in Circulation on April 30, 2018 .
The team collected data on five different low-risk lifestyle factors and compared health outcomes for those who adopted all five with those who didn’t adopt any. The five factors included maintaining a healthy eating pattern (getting the daily recommended amounts of vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and omega-3 fatty acids and limiting red and processed meats, beverages with added sugar, trans fat, and sodium); not smoking; getting at least 3.5 hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week; drinking only moderate amounts of alcohol (one drink or less per day for women or two drinks or less per day for men); and maintaining a normal weight (body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9). The researchers also collected information about the participants’ medical history, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as when they died.
At age 50, women who didn’t adopt any of the five healthy habits were estimated to live on average until they were 79 years old and men until they were 75.5 years. In contrast, women who adopted all five healthy lifestyle habits lived 93.1 years and men lived 87.6 years.
Independently, each of the five healthy lifestyle factors significantly lowered the risk of total death, death from cancer, and death from heart disease.
“This study underscores the importance of following healthy lifestyle habits for improving longevity in the U.S. population,” Hu says. “However, adherence to healthy lifestyle habits is very low. Therefore, public policies should put more emphasis on creating healthy food, built, and social environments to support and promote healthy diet and lifestyles.”
—by Tianna Hicklin, Ph.D.
References: Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population. Li Y, Pan A, Wang DD, Liu X, Dhana K, Franco OH, Kaptoge S, Di Angelantonio E, Stampfer M, Willett WC, Hu FB. Circulation . 2018 Apr 30. pii: CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29712712.
Funding: NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Cancer Institute (NCI); British Heart Foundation; UK Medical Research Council; National Key Research and Development Program of China; and American Heart Association.
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A step-by-step guide to researching what people do in their everyday lives.
This practical, beginner-friendly book teaches readers how to do daily life research, which is the study of what people do in their ordinary environments in their everyday lives.
The basic approach is to collect data intensively over time, at least once a day for many days, in people’s natural environments rather than in research labs. Common methods include daily diaries, experience sampling, and ecological momentary assessment. Collectively, these methods trade off the control and precision of the lab for the texture, depth, and realism of the real world.
The book walks readers through the entire process of the research project, including first selecting a design and developing survey items, then collecting and cleaning data, and finally analyzing and disseminating the findings.
With example studies pulled from all areas of psychology, the book will provide students with the conceptual foundation and practical knowledge needed to examine psychological processes “up close” in ways that experimental and survey methods can’t.
Paul J. Silvia is the Lucy Spinks Excellence Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he has been conducting experience sampling and daily diary research since the days when Palm Pilots were high-tech.
He has studied daily life experiences in many clinical and community groups, including older adults, veterans, parents adjudicated for child maltreatment, and adults with depression, ADHD, or PTSD. In addition to self-report projects, he has conducted experience sampling studies that integrate neuroimaging and ambulatory cardiac monitoring
Katherine N. Cotter is a postdoctoral fellow at the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work emphasizes the study of aesthetics and the arts in people’s everyday environments, using both experience-sampling and daily diary techniques.
Her recent work involves field research within art museums to illuminate people’s aesthetic experiences within the museum context.
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Sociology employs a wide range of approaches to study social relationships and human behavior across our society and within many areas of our lives. Sociologists evaluate and examine subject matter such as crime, religion, family relationships, racial and gender identity, class divisions, communities, cultures, and social stability.
Understandably, there are many examples of sociology in everyday life. Sociology provides a unique and illuminating perspective on how we, as complex human beings, influence our society, our relationships, and our culture as a whole.
Sociology serves as one of many branches under the social sciences umbrella that studies relationships among individuals within different societies. Sociology is the study of life in action — examining how individuals act and evolve within social groups while understanding the causes that influence behavior. Social interaction, or how individuals engage with and react to others, is a critical component of our collective society.
The premise that the person and society are intertwined is a crucial foundation of the sociological worldview. It isn’t easy to study one without also examining the other. This dual and comprehensive focus allows experts in this field — often referred to as sociologists — to study how individuals impact society and how society impacts individuals.
A sociologist utilizes various research methods to study society to learn more about social interactions with groups and how individual and collective experiences shape our behavior. A sociologist may study behavior within small-scale groups, such as family and friend relationships, as well as international institutions, such as economics, government, global relations, and more.
Examples of sociology could include studying the relationship between culture and society, examining social movements, or researching how communication affects human behavior. Sociology can be divided into several subfields, including criminology, political science, social work, sociology of health and illness, gender studies, and race/ethnicity studies.
A sociologist believes that an individual’s personal decisions do not exist in a vacuum. We, as individuals, are influenced by cultural trends, beliefs, and values, which impact our behavior. Sociologists identify and evaluate these factors through sociological research, which includes studying the behavior of the larger collective group, comprised of individuals in the same area under the same societal influences.
Sociologists evaluate human behavior by examining individual encounters, group interactions, and social processes. Micro-level sociologists investigate individual encounters, or face-to-face interactions, in small groups. For example, a micro-level sociologist may look at the accepted rules of discourse among distinct groups, such as teens or business executives. Prior to the pandemic, such study may have focused on in-person interactions. Today, sociologists provide insight into understanding how virtual and hybrid environments impact behavior.
While micro-level sociologists focus on small groups, macro-level sociologists investigate patterns within and between larger groups and societies. A macro-level examination may investigate how language use has evolved over time or in social media channels. Additionally, a macro-level sociologist may study how large-scale historical events impact a society — in the past, in the present, and in the future.
Sociologists compile their learnings about society and social interactions to make connections. This process is called sociological imagination.
Contemporary sociologist C. Wright Mill established the sociological imagination as a framework for connecting personal challenges and more significant social issues. Through the sociological imagination, sociologists develop a mindset to explain how these personal experiences, along with their challenges, impact the larger society in which we operate. Having a better understanding of the relationship between personal and public issues can help influence outcomes on every level.
When you begin to consider numerous situations or activities from views other than your own, you have entered into the domain of sociological imagination. For example, let’s look at homelessness. Some individuals believe homelessness is an individual problem — a person must have made poor choices and they became homeless. However, we know that’s not necessarily true — for many, homelessness may result from an unexpected illness, medical bills, or job loss. Through the sociological imagination, you’d understand homelessness as a consequence of many social factors that can impose burdens on individuals.
Sociology encompasses various subfields and areas of study that focus on understanding and analyzing different aspects of society. Here are some of the major types or branches of sociology:
These are just a few examples of the diverse areas within sociology. It is worth noting that many of these branches overlap and intersect, and sociologists often draw on multiple perspectives and theories to understand the complexities of social life.
Sociology is not an abstract concept. In everyday life and in our interactions, we see many examples that sociologists study. Here are five for you to consider:
Among experts, much discussion and evaluation is occurring regarding social classes: how they are created, what fuels them, and what inequalities arise as a result. Social inequality is linked to an imbalance in the distribution of wealth and resources that can impact social standing, social class, and social life.
For example, sociologists study how race and gender contribute to social inequalities within and across our societies. Sociologists research the contributing elements that create gender wage-gaps, as well as how racial bias contributes to disproportionate police brutality against minority groups.
Sociologists evaluate social inequality in two primary categories:
Symbolic interactionism, another major sociological framework, aims to explain human behavior by evaluating the symbolic meanings individuals develop and build upon throughout their lives. In society, different objects, gestures, behaviors, and events may mean different things.
Let’s look at an example — emojis. Now a standard in mobile communication, emojis can be interpreted differently to different groups. A smiling emoji could simply communicate being happy, but, it may also seem passive-aggressive.
Rainbows are another example of symbolism. Technically, a rainbow is a simple meteorological phenomenon. However, a rainbow may be used to express positive emotions, hope, and happiness. A rainbow is also a symbol for the LGBTQ+community as well, representing togetherness, unity, and pride.
“You are not acting your age.” “That was unprofessional behavior.” These are examples of assigning social roles throughout our interactions in different areas. Through the lens of socially-constructed gender roles, a sociologist may study why society expects women to behave in particular ways and how this contributes to larger issues, such as the wage gap.
The concept of roles focuses on predictable behavior — as human beings, predictability maintains stasis and prevents risk. Society “defines” these roles by creating predictable expectations of behavior — a person’s behavior should correspond to their social role.
If a cashier tells a political joke to a customer, it may be perceived as offensive and inappropriate — it does not fit into the established societal rules for this role and this type of social interaction. However, if this cashier tells the same political joke to a friend, it may not be perceived in a potentially offensive or inappropriate manner with the customer, as this is a different social setting.
Emotional expression is highly complex. It’s not simply a physiological response to stimuli; gender roles established in our society may influence how we express our emotions. For example, there’s an unwritten rule in our society that men don’t, or shouldn’t, cry — it’s not “masculine behavior.” On the other hand, women shouldn’t display aggression — it’s not “feminine behavior.” Through these expectations of behavior, individuals express emotions differently based on society’s gender norms. However, this contributes to a larger societal challenge – gender inequality.
Today, climate change and environmental protection remain a high priority in our society. Our choices individually, nationally, and globally directly impact our world — environmental sociology aims to understand our interactions with our natural and created environments.
For example, environmental-social movements advocate against companies that display a lack of environmental consciousness, either through animal testing, carbon footprint size, or destruction of protected lands and groups. An environmental sociologist may seek to understand why an organization may make these decisions, rather than consider alternate environmentally-sustainable methods instead. On a smaller scale, an environmental sociologist may study the relationship between energy and the environment. For example, electricity-fueled cars versus gas-fueled cars. An environmental sociologist may ask, “Are electric cars utilized among a particular set of individuals in a society?” “Are there factors that influence the affordability or availability of electric cars in relation to gas vehicles?” “Do cultural or societal constructs influence behavior or increased adoption of electric cars?”
Overall, many examples of sociology appear in our everyday life. Sociology encompasses a broad study of social interactions, with many interesting career options. Additionally, sociology and psychology share both similarities and distinct differences that you may be interested in exploring. If you’re wondering whether to major in sociology or psychology , we can help.
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February 4, 2020
Posted by: Danna Bell
This post was written by Amara L. Alexander, the 2019-20 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress
Inventions can lead to new technologies, create new jobs, and improve quality of life. Use primary sources to help students compare and contrast the work of three inventors: Leo Wahl established a new barbering tool; Samuel F. B. Morse developed the telegraph; and Benjamin Franklin revolutionized sight with bifocal lenses.
Wahl helped to transform the barber industry with his patented design of an electric hair clipper. He noticed the need for barbers to improve their cutting techniques and tinkered until he developed the first electromagnetic motor powered hair clipper. Show students the ad and allow time for them to read the description. Based on the features described, what problems do they think Wahl was trying to solve?
Morse studied art in London, England, and he wished to communicate faster with his family across the sea. With his electrical telegraph, he observed the sparks from the electrical wiring and the length of time between the sparks. Those sparks could be transmitted into an electrical alphabet that he developed: Morse code. The dots and dashes transmitted over wires could relay messages to people that were miles apart . Covering the bottom half of the image , encourage students to focus on the diagram of the device. Survey the class to discover if students know the name and purpose. Ask questions as needed:
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Allow students time to examine the image and record their responses . Next, reveal the bottom half of the page and invite students to think-pair-share. How does the new information change their thinking? Finally, display the the image of the service men using the telegraph and the deciphering Morse code and ask students what it suggests about uses of Morse’s inventions.
Benjamin Franklin has inventions credited to his name as well. A letter to friend George Whatley explains how bifocal lenses enabled Franklin to see his food more clearly and watch the facial expressions of those seated with him. Allow students to study the diagram and develop explanations of how the lenses worked.
Prompt students to think as inventors and focus on an object in the classroom, such as a door stopper. How might the item be improved? Offer students criteria for success and constraints on material, time, and cost. Guide them in planning and conducting an investigation based on their design model, and assess how well their inventions met the criteria and constraints of the design problem. Extend time for students to improve their model and retest.
For generations, innovators have used their imaginations to create new products to improve our daily lives. How can these historical examples spark innovation within your young inventors?
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Here's how a sense of purpose drives mood and improves your life..
Updated May 31, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills
The evidence clearly shows that having a sense of purpose—no matter what that is—is good for us. Research shows that having a sense of purpose leads to better health outcomes for older adults, improves our daily mood and physical well-being, and is even associated with increased financial earnings .
Now researchers are delving more into how having a sense of purpose plays out in the lives of individual people.
Gabrielle N. Pfund, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University, recently teamed up with Anthony Burrow, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University, and Patrick Hill, an aging researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, on a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Research in Personality that asks some key questions about the value of purpose in our daily lives and looks for an evidence-based way to cultivate purpose.
“First, we wanted to better understand whether feeling purposeful was synonymous with feeling positive emotions and not feeling negative ones,” explained Pfund, whose research focuses on the intersection of personality and health.
For the study, more than 350 participants filled out surveys on their phones in the evening for 10 days. Researchers asked questions about how much drive or purpose they felt each day, such as, “Were you engaged in worthwhile activities?” and “Did you make progress toward your goals ?” They also asked participants to describe to what extent they felt specific emotions on a given day, including irritableness, peacefulness, sadness, and calm. Their goal was to determine how much an individual’s sense of purpose and mood varied from day to day.
They found that individual participants’ sense of purpose or drive varied greatly from day to day; despite these fluctuations, individuals tended to consistently feel purposeful in general or that they were making progress toward their life goals, even when they didn’t feel purposeful on any given day. On the whole, people’s daily sense of purpose tended to vary about as much as their daily moods.
“In this case, we found that purpose was more strongly tied to experiences of positive emotions, but it was more weakly associated with negative emotions,” Pfund said. “This was a fascinating finding because it communicates that there are times where we'll feel purposeful and also might experience negative feelings, as pursuing the things in our life goals and aims can sometimes require stress and challenge. Recognizing that purpose can help us feel good, but also may mean sometimes feeling bad, can assure people that experiencing negative emotions does not mean they are on the wrong track. The best things in life don't come easily.”
The study is important because it helps researchers better understand how to cultivate a sense of purpose in our daily lives, Pfund said.
“This data helps illustrate the benefits of simply focusing on, ‘How do I feel today? Did I make progress toward my goals? Did I feel like I was engaged in worthwhile activities?’” she said. “By tuning into your responses to those questions from one day to the next, you will be better able to figure out over time what gives you a sense of purpose, getting you one step closer to understanding what your purpose in life may be.”
The data in the study also illustrates that daily fluctuations in both mood and purpose are completely normal, Pfund said.
“In my mind, the other exciting aspect of our findings is being able to embrace the phrase of ‘this too shall pass,’” she said. “Just because someone doesn't feel purposeful today, tomorrow, or the day after that, does not mean they are bound to a life without purpose. Purposefulness waxes and wanes. Empirically, we are not bound to always feeling purposeful or never feeling purposeful. There will be good days and bad days, so too will there be purposeful ones versus not.”
The take-home message: It’s normal for your sense of purpose and your mood to vary from day-to-day; despite these oscillations, the best way to cultivate a sense of purpose in your life is to focus on your daily actions and whether they align with your long-term goals.
The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University is focused on using research findings to improve health and well-being of people at all stages of life.
Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Penn State
Melanie R. McReynolds receives funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program Faculty Phase and the Burroughs Welcome Fund PDEP Transition to Faculty.
Penn State provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.
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Aging is a biological process that no one can avoid. Ideally, growing old should be a time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Aging also has a darker side, however, often linked to disease.
Every second, your cells perform billions of biochemical reactions that fuel essential functions for life, forming a highly interconnected metabolic network . This network enables cells to grow, proliferate and repair themselves, and its disruption can drive the aging process .
But does aging cause metabolic decline, or does metabolic disruption accelerate aging? Or both?
To address this chicken-or-egg question, you first need to understand how metabolic processes break down during aging and disease. I am a scientist and researcher , and my lab focuses on exploring the complex relationship between metabolism, stress and aging. Ultimately, we hope this work will provide strategies to promote healthier aging and more vibrant lives.
Aging is the most significant risk factor for many of society’s most common diseases , including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders. A key factor behind the onset of these health issues is the disruption of cellular and metabolic homeostasis, or balance . Disrupting homeostasis destabilizes the body’s internal environment, leading to imbalances that can trigger a cascade of health issues, including metabolic disorders, chronic diseases and impaired cellular functions that contribute to aging and other serious conditions.
Disrupted metabolism is linked to many hallmarks of aging cells, such as telomere shortening , which is damage to the protective ends of chromosomes, and genomic instability , the tendency to form genetic mutations.
A dysfunctional metabolism is also linked to poorly functioning mitochondria ; cellular senescence , or when cells stop dividing; imbalances in gut microbes ; and cells’ reduced ability to detect and respond to different nutrients .
Neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are prime examples of age-related conditions with a strong link between dysregulated metabolism and functional decline. For example, my research team previously discovered that in aging mice, the ability of bone marrow cells to produce, store and use energy is suppressed due to increased activity from a protein that modulates inflammation. This energy-deficient state leads to an increase in inflammation that’s worsened by these aging cells’ reliance on glucose as their main fuel source.
Experimentally inhibiting this protein in the bone marrow cells of aging mice, however, revitalizes the cells’ ability to produce energy, reduces inflammation and improves plasticity of an area of the brain involved in memory. This finding suggests that some cognitive aging could be reversed by reprogramming the glucose metabolism of bone marrow cells to restore immune functions.
In our newly published research, my team and I discovered a new connection between disrupted glucose metabolism and neurodegenerative disease. This led us to identify a drug originally designed for cancer that could potentially be used to treat Alzheimer’s.
We focused on an enzyme called IDO1 that plays a critical role in the first step of breaking down amino acid tryptophan. This pathway produces a key compound called kynurenine, which fuels additional energy pathways and inflammatory responses. However, excessive kynurenine can have detrimental effects , including increasing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
We found that inhibiting IDO1 can recover memory and brain function in a range of preclinical models, including in cell cultures and mice. To understand why, we looked at the metabolism of brain cells. The brain is one of the most glucose-dependent tissues in the body. An inability to properly use glucose to fuel critical brain processes can lead to metabolic and cognitive decline.
High levels of IDO1 reduce glucose metabolism by producing excess kynurenine. So IDO1 inhibitors – originally designed to treat cancers such as melanoma, leukemia and breast cancer – could be repurposed to reduce kynurenine and improve brain function.
Using a range of lab models, including mice and cells from Alzheimer’s patients, we also found that IDO1 inhibitors can restore glucose metabolism in brain cells . Furthermore, we were able to restore glucose metabolism in mice with both amyloid and tau accumulation – abnormal proteins involved in many neurodegenerative disorders – by blocking IDO1. We believe repurposing these inhibitors could be beneficial across various neurodegenerative disorders.
The effects of neurological disorders and metabolic decline weigh heavily on individuals, families and the economy.
While many scientists have focused on targeting the downstream effects of these diseases, such as managing symptoms and slowing progression, treating these diseases earlier can improve cognition with aging. Our findings suggest that targeting metabolism has the potential to not only slow neurological decline but also to reverse the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.
Discovering new insights at the intersection of stress, metabolism and aging can pave the way for healthier aging. More research can improve our understanding of how metabolism affects stress responses and cellular balance throughout life.
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Research empowers us with knowledge. Though scientists carry out research, the rest of the world benefits from their findings. We get to know the way of nature, and how our actions affect it. We gain a deeper understanding of people, and why they do the things they do. Best of all, we get to enrich our lives with the latest knowledge of health ...
In this article, we delve into the importance of research in daily life, making tangible the link between the seemingly abstract world of research and our everyday experiences. The Hidden Guide in Our Decision Making. One of the most immediate ways research impacts our lives is by informing our daily decision-making.
Spotify. Another example of the importance of research in our daily lives is the invention of Spotify. Based on research, it was found that music can lessen the impact of depression and anxiety. It is the perfect way to escape reality, especially when dealing with university stress and assignments. With Spotify, you don't need to wait for ...
Through extensive research and experimentation, scientists are able to discover new medications and therapies that help treat diseases and improve the quality of life for patients. ... hurricanes, and other weather events. Accurate weather forecasts not only help us plan our daily activities but also play a vital role in disaster preparedness ...
Research is essential to our daily lives. It helps us to make informed decisions about everything from the food we eat to the medicines we take. It also allows us to better understand the world around us and find solutions to problems. In short, research is essential for our health, safety, and well-being.
Source: University of Surrey. "The research has found that adolescence, the time when bone growth is most important in laying down the foundations for later life, is a time when Vitamin D levels are inadequate," says Dr Taryn Smith, Lead Author of the study. The study forms part of a four-year, EU-funded project, ODIN, which aims to ...
A brief history of the scientific method. The scientific method has its roots in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Philosophers Francis Bacon and René Descartes are often credited with formalizing the scientific method because they contrasted the idea that research should be guided by metaphysical pre-conceived concepts of the nature of reality—a position that, at the time, was ...
Curiosity leads to research. Research is what propels humanity forward. It's fueled by curiosity: we get curious, ask questions, and immerse ourselves in discovering everything there is to know. Learning is thriving. Without curiosity and research, progress would slow to a halt, and our lives as we know them would be completely different.
It allows us to disprove lies and support truths. It is a means to find, gauge, and seize opportunities. It promotes confidence in reading, writing, analyzing, and sharing valuable information. It provides nourishment and exercise for the mind. Conducting research doesn't just arm us with knowledge—it helps teach us how to think.
How Research Benefits Human Health. Fundamental discoveries promote healthy living and treatment of disease. Experiments on animals play a central role in providing insights about the human brain and in helping to make healthy lifestyle choices, prevent disease, and find cures for disorders. Research on humans is an essential final step before ...
Psychology's Impact. Psychologists use scientific research to better understand how people learn, interpret events and make decisions. They then translate that knowledge into techniques to help people make smarter choices in their daily lives. Based on a deep knowledge of how lifestyles are affected by factors related to biology, mental ...
Transportation and Travel. Science plays a crucial role in transportation and travel, impacting our daily lives in numerous ways. Firstly, advancements in science have revolutionized the way we travel, with the invention of various modes of transportation such as cars, airplanes, and trains. These innovations have made it quicker and more ...
Research on how we form new memories as well as how and why we forget has led to a number of findings that can be applied directly in your daily life. To increase your memory power: Focus on the information. Rehearse what you have learned. Eliminate distractions.
Conclusion. Research is part and parcel of life, in fact without research life will not be as it is. To live better life research is necessary; this is because research leads to innovation and invention. As far as science is concerned research leads to the invention of vaccines and drugs.
Especially research around the effect on writing on our daily actions is lacking in evidence. There is plenty of evidence that these small, written interventions have an effect and can even play a role in redirecting people (e.g., Wilson, 2011 ) and that these interventions can have a powerful effects in terms of behavioral change ( Yeager and ...
Longevity research is booming. Scientists are looking for ways to target the basic biology of aging. And here's the exciting part: Our biological age appears to be malleable.
It's also, at a fundamental level, the same way scientists approach any problem they face. It's a way each of us not only applies science to our everyday lives, but should demand that those making ...
At age 50, women who didn't adopt any of the five healthy habits were estimated to live on average until they were 79 years old and men until they were 75.5 years. In contrast, women who adopted all five healthy lifestyle habits lived 93.1 years and men lived 87.6 years. Independently, each of the five healthy lifestyle factors significantly ...
A Guide to Experience Sampling and Daily Diary Methods, First Edition. A step-by-step guide to researching what people do in their everyday lives. This practical, beginner-friendly book teaches readers how to do daily life research, which is the study of what people do in their ordinary environments in their everyday lives.
Sociologists evaluate and examine subject matter such as crime, religion, family relationships, racial and gender identity, class divisions, communities, cultures, and social stability. Understandably, there are many examples of sociology in everyday life. Sociology provides a unique and illuminating perspective on how we, as complex human ...
This post was written by Amara L. Alexander, the 2019-20 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress. Inventions can lead to new technologies, create new jobs, and improve quality of life. Use primary sources to help students compare and contrast the work of three inventors: Leo Wahl established a new barbering tool; Samuel F. B. Morse developed the telegraph; and ...
from ScienceDaily. Researchers find that people who experience higher 'felt love' -- brief experiences of love and connection in everyday life -- also have significantly higher levels of ...
There will be good days and bad days, so too will there be purposeful ones versus not.". The take-home message: It's normal for your sense of purpose and your mood to vary from day-to-day ...
In our newly published research, my team and I discovered a new connection between disrupted glucose metabolism and neurodegenerative disease. This led us to identify a drug originally designed ...