BE RELIGIOUS...LIVE LONGER!

It seems longer, but it "only' was just about a year ago that the world went into lockdown from COVID-19.  The New York Times speculated that ONE in THREE Americans know someone who has died from this virus:   Those We’ve Lost.

How lucky and blessed am I?  With most of the residents of 15 Craigside, most of us do not know even one person who contracted this virus.  Meaning, we don't know anyone who has died.  And we live in a seniors' community in one building.  Got to give credit to the administration, and people who responsibly live here.  More than 97% took our second Moderna shot a month ago, while 89% of all employees also did.  There is about an equal number of both here.  Many sites around the world are having problems convincing their staff to be vaccinated.  Less than half, in the U.S., according to AARP.

On Sundays I usually delve into a spiritual subject.  I was wondering, do religious people live longer than the non-religious?  The answer is YES!!!  

• ... women who went to any kind of religious service more than once a week had a 33% lower chance than their secular peers of dying during the 16-year study-follow-up period.

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  ... regular service attendance was linked to reductions in the body’s stress responses and even in mortality–so much so that worshippers were 55% less likely to die during the up to 18-year follow-up period than people who didn’t frequent the temple, church or mosque.
• ...a network of social support, an optimistic attitude, better self-control and a sense of purpose in life–may account for the long-life benefits seen in his study and others.
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  ...the values drawn from religious tradition–such as “respect, compassion, gratitude, charity, humility, harmony, meditation and preservation of health”–that seem to predict longevity, not the dogma preached at the altar.
•  Biologically, if that reduces stress, then that means you’re less likely to have high blood pressure or diabetes or things that can increase mortality.

From another source (Ohio University):

• The study, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science today, found that on average people whose obituary mentioned they were religious lived an extra 5.64 years.
• The major part of the study used more than 1,000 obituaries from newspapers in 42 states. But a further analysis of 500 obituaries from the Des Moines Register, a paper in Iowa, found the effect was more pronounced and religion was associated with an extra 6.48 years of life, suggesting living in a more religious area might have an extra effect.
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  The authors suggested that the remaining life expectancy might be a result of religious people being more likely to abstain from alcohol and drug use and other behaviours that could affect life expectancy – though these were not regularly recorded in obituaries.
• There also may be a benefit of “stress reducing practices” such as meditation, yoga or prayer..

Oh well, I'm semi-doomed.  A few Sunday cartoons:

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