Diet and exercise are certainly vital for health and a long life, but science shows there is another longevity ingredient we often overlook: finding purpose.
Research reveals that people who believe their existence has meaning have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and more favourable gene expression related to inflammation. If a 90-year-old with a clear purpose in life develops Alzheimer's disease, that person will probably keep functioning relatively well despite real pathological changes in the brain, one study found.
Another meta-analysis of 10 studies involving more than 136,000 people found that having purpose in life can lower your mortality risk by about 17 percent – about as much as following the famed Mediterranean diet.