If you regard the age on your birthday cards as less biological fact and more unhelpful suggestion, you might be on to something: thinking yourself young could mean you live longer.
People who feel younger than their true age are much less likely to die early than those who feel older than they are, a study suggests.
Scientists believe that a “sense of vitality” might protect against ill health, even accounting for people who feel older because they are already sick. GPs could ask people how old they feel as a “summary” of how their lives are doing, researchers add.
They looked at data on 6,500 people aged over 52, most of whom felt much younger than their average age of 65. Over eight years,