Hi Jay - there's an interesting article in the most recent Time magazine, and it made me think of you - about a study of nuns, which ones get Alzheimer's and which don't. The study has been ongoing for about 15 years. The observation that made me think of you is that the ones whose writing frequently express positive emotions like happiness, love, hope, gratitude, and contentment, live longer than the ones who more often express negative emotions like sadness, fear, confusion and shame.
The researcher hasn't yet compared the emotional content of the writing with brain autopsies but he suspects an inverse correlation between expression of positive emotions and incidence of Alzheimer's.
He has already found an inverse correlation between complexity of writing style at an early age and later incidence of Alzheimer's, an inverse correlation between high density of ideas in writings and Alzheimer's, and an inverse correlation between folate in the diet and Alzheimer's.
I don't know about your folate intake, but you express more positive emotions in your writings than anyone else on SI, so may you live long and continue to think well.:)
I liked your explanation that people on the thread who have a dim prognosis for the stock market in the near future are still upbeat and optimistic people. I think for many of us that is absolutely true. I have great expectations for the future of the human race in general - and there are great investments out there, too, we just gotta keep looking for them. It's not a matter of optimism or pessimism, it's a matter of prudence.
Pezz is an optimistic guy, too - I think he's older than you realize, though. He told he how old he is when we were debating vegetarianism - he was against it. He's also a very healthy guy. I won't tell you how old he is but he's older than me and I'm 48.
time.com |
