Welcome to the Good Life Chronicles, where living a good life takes center stage.
Longevity is having a moment. Peptides, supplement stacks, cold plunges, biomarker panels that cost more than a flight overseas. All of it chasing the same goal, more years, better years. Some of it is promising. Some of it is expensive noise dressed up as science.
But, here's what rarely makes the list and it (really) should.
Being happier.
Researchers now describe subjective wellbeing, essentially how good you feel about your life and how much positive versus negative emotion you experience day to day, as its own modifiable health factor.
In a large analysis, a one standard deviation increase in wellbeing was linked to a 14 percent reduction in mortality risk, and that held up even after accounting for depression separately. In other words, this isn't just "treating depression helps." Feeling good appears to matter on its own, independently of the absence of feeling bad.
The proposed mechanisms read like a highlight reel of what any longevity clinic claims to target. Lower inflammation. Better regulated stress response and nervous system activity. Better sleep. Better blood sugar control. Better adherence to whatever health plan you're already on, because people who feel good tend to actually stick with things. On top of that, higher wellbeing is consistently tied to lower rates of depression and a broadly better quality of life, the kind of outcome that doesn't show up on a lab report but shows up in how a life actually feels to live.
And yet, ask most clinics or check-ups whether psychological wellbeing is part of the plan, and the answer right now is usually no. (I’ve checked almost all of them). It's not a standard part of most medical protocols yet, even though the medical bodies overseeing lifestyle medicine have formally added it to the list of things that count, right alongside diet, exercise, and sleep.
So, if you're already investing time and money chasing a longer, better life, this is the cheaper, faster place to start. Most people don't even know psychological wellbeing training exists as its own field, let alone know what to ask a clinic for. You don't need to find the right referral or hope your doctor happens to offer this. Psychological Capability for Life and Work walks you through exactly this, optimism, emotion regulation, meaning, and designing positive emotion on purpose, in a structured way, at a fraction of what a longevity clinic membership costs. You can take a look here: Psychological Capability for Life and Work.
The science is there. Most people just don't know where to find it yet. This is where you start closing that gap yourself.
If a longevity clinic offered a wellbeing program alongside the usual blood panels and supplements, would you actually use it?
Share your thoughts in the comments here or below depending on your platform. Remember to sign in to leave a comment.
While you’re here!
If you like the idea of happiness and feel someone in your life should too, pass along this newsletter. They can sign up here.
Why not learn the skills of good living for yourself? Sign up to my course here, you can also “gift” the course to others.
Finally, do you work somewhere in the GCC that could use a little uplifting? See my programs for organizations here.
Have a great week and remember: Life is short, happiness matters.
Dr. Louise
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