Do You Have a Purpose in Life? If So, You May Live Longer

The journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity carries an interesting report from Dr Chapman and his colleagues at Rochester It examines the role that the presence of different extraversion vs. introversion personality traits are associated with circulating blood levels of interleukin (IL)-6. This substance is a pro-inflammatory cytokine, meaning that it’s an indicator of the degree of inflammation present in the body. Higher levels of IL-6 have been described in a number of conditions in the elderly, ranging from coronary artery disease to cognitive decline, muscle weakness and disability. And for elderly people at risk of cardiovascular disease, raised inflammatory markers like IL-6 indicate a higher risk of a fatal rather than a non-fatal heart attack or stroke.

Extraversion is a personality trait with three components: a tendency to happy thoughts, a desire for companionship, and “dispositional energy” (this is a sense of vigor, purpose, and active engagement with life). The study reported above found that happiness and companionship didn’t correlate in any way with IL-6 levels, but dispositional energy did. Increases in this trait were associated with significant decreases in IL-6 levels. In general, women and minorities have higher levels of IL-6 than white males. In this study, both white and minority women had significant differences I IL-6 level, depending on whether they had high or low dispositional energy. The magnitude of the differences were similar to those reported for a doubling in 5-year mortality in another study.

About 9% of the differences in IL-6 were due to gender, 6% to dispositional energy, and4% to race or ethnicity. The authors of the study considered it “a great surprise” that a personality trait could contribute more to IL-6 levels than race/ethnicity.

If you’re elderly, an introvert, and lacking in “life force”, maybe you should try to consider incorporating an exercise regime into your lifestyle, preferably in a gym where you’ll meet and interact with others. (Physical activity lowers IL-6 levels, amongst many other benefits.)