Want to Live Longer? Here is One Easy Habit. By Lane Jordan Burday
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22).
(I saw this on a news feed and felt it was so important that I wanted to share it with you. Ashley Fike wrote it, and it was posted on the New York Post on August 29, 2026.)
Did you know that research links social connections to lower mortality, while loneliness is associated with chronic stress, inflammation, and earlier death?
Most cosmetic companies are trying to sell longer life with creams and lotions. But Bryan Johnson has turned his entire existence into a longevity experiment with a publicist. And through all of it, one of the best-supported ways to live longer is constantly overlooked because you can’t bottle it!
Dr. Eric Verdin, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, told the New York Post that all this longevity optimization can miss something painfully basic. “Loneliness and isolation drive chronic stress, and chronic stress drives inflammation,” he said. His recommendations require no subscription or charging cable.
Sleep well, move your body, eat properly, reduce stress, and spend time with people you like.
Did you know the Bible knows this? Proverbs 17:22, 14:30, and 16:24 highlight how a joyful heart, peace, and kind words act as medicine and bring health to the body and soul!
Now we all know how dangerous smoking can be. But so can loneliness! In 2010, Brigham Young University psychologist Julianne Holt Lunstad led a meta-analysis of more than 300,000 people and found that poor social connection carried a death risk comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. People with stronger relationships were also 50% more likely to survive over the study period.
A June 2025 WHO Commission Report put a much bigger number on the global problem. One in six people worldwide experiences loneliness, and the Commission estimates it contributes to more than 871,000 deaths a year—around 100 every hour. In May 2025, the World Health Assembly passed its first resolution on social connection.
Loneliness can keep anxiety on, while close relationships help turn the volume down. It is one of those findings that makes the billion-dollar longevity industry look slightly overengineered compared with dinner and a few good friends!
Gerontologist Dr. Kerry Burnight has a name for the neglected part of longevity: “joyspan,” the years when life remains enjoyable. Her book (also called Joyspan) points to growing, connecting, adapting, and giving as the core practices. It’s a very old-fashioned answer to a very modern obsession with living forever.
Do you want to live longer? Then spend time with people who build you up and who you like! It’s one of the oldest human habits, which may also be one of the healthiest.
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