Synopses & Reviews
Watch a Fox News segment on The Longevity Project.
This landmark study--which Dr. Andrew Weil calls "a remarkable achievement with surprising conclusions"--upends the advice we have been told about how to live to a healthy old age.
We have been told that the key to longevity involves obsessing over what we eat, how much we stress, and how fast we run. Based on the most extensive study of longevity ever conducted, The Longevity Project exposes what really impacts our lifespan-including friends, family, personality, and work.
Gathering new information and using modern statistics to study participants across eight decades, Dr. Howard Friedman and Dr. Leslie Martin bust myths about achieving health and long life. For example, people do not die from working long hours at a challenging job- many who worked the hardest lived the longest. Getting and staying married is not the magic ticket to long life, especially if you're a woman. And it's not the happy-go-lucky ones who thrive-it's the prudent and persistent who flourish through the years.
With questionnaires that help you determine where you are heading on the longevity spectrum and advice about how to stay healthy, this book changes the conversation about living a long, healthy life.
Review
"How best to ensure a long life? You're probably familiar with the traditional recipes: Vigorous exercise, married life and a healthy balance of work and play, among other ingredients, help us stay young. But in a new book,
The Longevity Project, university professors Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin explain why many of these common beliefs are "ill-advised or simply wrong." Analyzing data collected from a starting group of 1,500 individuals over the course of 80 years, the authors explain why a host of factors-including "persistence, prudence...and close involvement with friends and communities"-can improve health and longevity. An absorbing and invaluable read."
-The Wall Street Journal
"A compelling and objective assessment of character traits associated with longevity. Only a handful of studies in this field last long enough to give meaningful results, and even fewer remain significant after their primary investigators have passed away. Friedman and Martin have resurrected a remarkable achievement with surprising conclusions. I learned a lot from this book."
-Andrew Weil, M.D.
"The Longevity Project uses one of the most famous studies in psychology to answer the question of who lives longest--and why. The answers will surprise you. This is an important--and deeply fascinating-- book."
-Malcolm Gladwell
"Incredibly, no one until now has chronicled and interpreted the findings from the monumental almost century-long longevity project for the general public. Is living a long life associated with being married, daily jogs, having a pet, or faith in God? At last, with lucid prose and rigorous yet crystal clear analysis, Professor Friedman and Professor Martin have succeeded beautifully."
-Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph. D., professor of psychology at the University of California/Riverside, and author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
"The surprises in this fascinating book begin in the introduction and don't let up. I found it chock full of compelling, well substantiated evidence that is both counter-intuitive and immediately beneficial to readers. The Longevity Project is scholarly without being jargon-y and clear without sacrificing data, as the authors explain eloquently not only what we know about the keys to longevity but how we know it-and how readers can test themselves as they go along. This wise, warm book will delight and inform readers of all ages."
-Carol Tavris, Ph.D., coauthor of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)
"The Longevity Project is about why some people thrive well into old age while other people become ill and die young. Psychologists Friedman and Martin go beyond the usual suggestions that it has to do with eating vegetables, avoiding stress, being happy, and exercising. They show how important it is to be persistent, responsible and conscientious. And they tell us why. Anyone interested in living a longer and healthier life ought to read this terrific book."
-Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, University of California/Irvine, and author of The Myth of Repressed Memory
"From this report of the results of a one-of-a-kind study of human development from birth to death over the course of nearly 100 years (from 1910 to the present) we learn that much of what we "knew" to predict longevity was wrong. The content of this book will prove fascinating, not only to social, behavioral, and clinical scientists and practitioners and their students, but to the general reading public as well. The writing is crystal clear as it compels us to go on reading because we know that there will be an illuminating vignette as an example, or another fascinating finding, just around the corner, on the next page."
-Robert Rosenthal, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Riverside and Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Harvard University
Review
"
The Longevity Project uses one of the most famous studies in psychology to answer the question of who lives longestand why. The answers will surprise you. This is an importantand deeply fascinatingbook."
Malcolm Gladwell
Review
"Provocative. An absorbing and invaluable read." -The Wall Street Journal
Review
"I recommend you read the book." -Katherine Bouton, The New York Times
Review
"A remarkable achievement with surprising conclusions." -Andrew Weil, M.D.
Synopsis
"An extraordinary eighty-year study has led to some unexpected discoveries about long life."
-O, The Oprah Magazine
For years we have been told to obsessively monitor when we're angry, what we eat, how much we worry, and how often we go to the gym. So why isn't everyone healthy? Drawing from the most extensive study of long life ever conducted, The Longevity Project busts many long- held myths, revealing how:
About the Author
Dr. Howard Friedman is Distinguished Professor at the University of California in Riverside. He is the recipient of two major career awards for his health psychology research. In 1999, he received the Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association; and in 2008, he was honored with the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS), an international award and the most prestigious in his field of applied research.
Dr. Leslie Martin is Professor of Psychology at La Sierra University, and Research Psychologist at UC Riverside. She graduated summa cum laude from the California State University and received her Ph.D. from the University of California in Riverside. She has received the Distinguished Researcher Award, and the Anderson Award for Excellence in Teaching, both at La Sierra University. Former department chair, Dr. Martin has also received awards for outstanding advising and for service learning. In addition to her research on pathways to health and longevity, she studies physician-patient communication and its relationship to medical outcomes and has lectured widely on these topics.