A large genetic analysis has found that people with better mental health tend to live longer and healthier lives, and that certain lifestyle habits, such as eating more cheese, may play a role. Researchers in China have combined the genes of millions of Europeans not only to show that water is good for you, but this is one of the more interesting results.
After all, who wouldn’t want to be told that eating lots of cheese will help you live a long and healthy life? However, there is more to the discovery than just eating food that makes you happy.
Previous observational studies have found that happiness can affect a person’s life even more than smoking. But this is only an association that can be confounded by other, less significant factors, such as socioeconomic status.
The current study is different. It uses an analytical technique called Mendelian randomization, which is a valuable tool for studying which factors influence our genes and lead to certain health outcomes.
This is one of several methods that researchers can use to predict possible causes without conducting clinical trials.
Across eight different populations in Europe, each with between 38,000 and 2.4 million individuals, researchers were able to prove that good mental well-being, as measured by life satisfaction, mood, neuroticism and depressive symptoms, can help you live longer and more healthy live.
“Our study provides encouraging evidence that improving mental health is a viable strategy for healthy aging, regardless of a person’s socioeconomic status,” they said.
A research team examined 33 people from the European database to investigate what mediating factors may be between mental health and healthy aging, including factors such as smoking, physical activity, medication use, and muscle mass. and diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
Here comes the cheese. Of all 33 people studied, those who reported eating more cheese and fruit had higher cognitive scores. Additionally, eating more cheese had a 3.67 percent positive effect on self-rated health and longevity.
To put this into perspective, smoking has a 4.56 percent positive effect on aging health, while eating fruit has a 1.96 percent positive effect.
Interestingly, researchers found that television viewing time was a lifestyle factor with the biggest negative impact on aging health factor is 7.39 percent.
Resolving the differences between mental and physical health is a complex task, and no study can take into account every variable that can have an effect. That said, the authors of the current study admit that their research is “reasonable and conclusive,” at least regarding possible effects among Europeans.
More research is needed to understand why eating cheese can have such an effect on healthy aging compared to eating fruit.
Although fatty foods are often considered bad for human health, studies show that dairy consumption can lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality. All full-fat dairy products, like ice cream, have been linked to poorer mental health, but certain types of cheese can make a difference when eaten in a balanced diet.
For example, in a recent study in Japan, high consumption of cheese is associated with better cognitive function, and some other research shows that cheese can stimulate our brain’s dopamine pathway, making us feel happy.
From this preliminary research, cheese seems to be good for your mind and body. If you want to live a long and healthy life, you could do worse than sprinkle parmesan on your pasta. The research was published in Nature Human Behavior.
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