Want To Live Longer? MOVE.
Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society
If you knew you could get more life out of a location, would you sell and move?
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Before I made the Great Big Move from Colorado to Oregon in 2020, I had no idea that it might benefit my lifespan. Those of us in the so-called “Medicare population” who are selling and moving- and in this case I’m not including becoming an ex-pat- may well benefit, but there are provisos.
Big ones. Stay with me here.
Interested? I was. After this election a great many people are considering getting the hell out of Dodge. Blue folks want to live in Blue counties and Red folks want to live in Red ones, which doesn’t help us learn to live together one bit.
That’s another article, but for one point: lots of people are really, really angry. Angry enough to pick up and move. I’ll circle back to that in a moment.
Even before the results came out, a goodly number of us had already decided that a better life existed somewhere else. Let’s explore that first.
If you did move, was all that effort and cost worth it?
This morning I stumbled on some research which stated that a move might well pay off. In reading the small print, though, not by a whole lot. In this case, it’s about extending your life simply by moving to certain areas. Sounds exciting, right?
This article caught my eye, and I went to the source report to learn more. Those of us chasing longevity by any means might find the results interesting, but those results might also convince us to stay where we are.
The above map tells a story about life in the US, and where certain folks enjoy a slightly better one. I say “slightly” because the relative gains aren’t measured in decades.
From the article:
The places that are good for a person’s longevity tend to be on the coasts or in and around larger cities. As a general rule, longer life expectancy is associated with locations that have better quality and quantity of healthcare, more moderate climates, lower crime rates, less pollution, and higher socioeconomic status. Also, people who naturally have a tendency toward longer life (for example, because of genetics) can reap greater benefits by living in a healthier location.
On the surface this might sound like a terrific idea. Move to Miami or Seattle and live longer. Really?
But wait, there’s more:
In the words of the authors, “Moving from a tenth to a ninetieth percentile location would increase life expectancy at age 65 by 1.1 years.” Given that this study found that the life expectancy for a 65-year-old in the U.S. is 83.3 years, an additional 1.1 years is a modest increase.
After all the trouble and time and cost and upheaval it takes to sell, downsize, move and the like, you only gain, say, 1.1 years? Izzat ALL?
From personal experience I can attest to some of this. It took me a few years to locate where I wanted to go (closer to a coast, live where it rains a LOT more and is very green). There is plenty of research about how spending time in green spaces (forests) and close to water (in my case, the coast) has significant health benefits.
My move was a net gain. I am indeed deeply happy for living here, at least as long as I can afford it (there’s always that). The combination of being hugged by huge trees and easy access to big, frothy rivers as well as the Coast did it for me, as it does for many.
But the cost…let’s not even go there. That’s another issue entirely that’s over my pay grade. However there is more to this argument of where we consider moving.
Many if not most of us are well aware that there are at least two Americas, blue and red. Those who live in rural, red counties often have poorer health outcomes than the citified blue.
That’s hardly the whole story. There are ten Americas. When we consider where we live as a part of life expectancy, it’s intriguing to take into account a lot more than the color of our lawn signs.
In this article from Big Think, we’re introduced to no fewer than ten discrete Americas, each of which has a different life expectancy, driven by all kinds of factors including, for example, the above-mentioned red rural counties.
From that article:
As a team of researchers at the University of Washington (UW) revealed in an analysis published in November to The Lancet:
“One’s life expectancy varies dramatically depending on where one lives, the economic conditions in that location, and one’s racial and ethnic identity.”
While this may not be news to many of us, the sheer disparity of the life expectancy caught me off guard. Here’s a sampling:
America 1 comprises the roughly 21 million Asians and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders (NHPI) living in counties where the NHPI population was less than 30% of the total Asian and NHPI population in 2020. In 2021, they could expect to live 84 years at birth, compared to 83.1 years in 2000.
White folks? Three and four, with lower life expectancies of 77.2 and 76.7, the latter of which is down a year since 2021. Then there’s…
America 8 is made up of whites living in poor parts of Appalachia and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Its 10.3 million residents could expect to live 71.1 years in 2021, sharply down from 74.8 years in 2000.
The bulk of America’s Black folks fall into America 9.
The worst are no surprise:
America 10 represents American Indians and Alaska Natives inhabiting the Midwest or western states not bordering the Pacific Ocean. These 1.3 million people had a shockingly low life expectancy of 63.6 years in 2021, cratering from 72.3 years in 2000.
Many, many factors go into this. But here’s what to be aware of in light of the first story, top. Lots of folks from the cities are moving into rural America, bringing with them all kinds of changes. Some aren’t so good: rich folk buy up homes and property, run the cost of living up and more poor people are pushed out of their homes and communities.
Their arrival brings services and improvements in things like medical care, education and the like, but not without considerable cost to the community’s long-time inhabitants. In many of these communities, the net impact can be terribly negative.
I’ve yet to meet a developer who gives a rat’s patootie about the townspeople whose businesses are being ravaged by Walmart, their houses sold for mini-mansions. Migration means all kinds of changes not only for us but for the folks where we’re landing.
One reason I left Denver was that kind of mass migration. Those changes, which in many ways were great for others, were not great for the life I’d moved there to live. Many of us can relate if we live in attractive spots we’d prefer to have kept secret.
I’d moved to Denver in 1971 when it was a smallish cowtown with nary a designer shop to its name. I loved it.
Today it’s just too damned big, too damned busy. My stables have closed and moved. Same story lots of places. When you and I move, we become part of the problem. (Case in point: WHERE THE HELL DID ALL THIS TRAFFIC COME FROM? People like you, who are saying the same thing about you but sitting in all the other cars)
While dated (2016), this study funded by the US Department of Agriculture speaks to five distinct migration patterns which include youth migration and rural exodus, retirement and destination counties which attract migrants, and university students.
With that as a backdrop, here’s what happened with Covid. The pandemic allowed a great many folks to work from home, and that meant being able to move out of over-populated, over-priced cities like San Francisco and set up shop in small, rural areas anywhere they could get internet.
Texans can relate. Consider Austin.
I could go on. But here’s my point.
We are always on the move, as a people, as a species. Some of it is driven by economics, some preference, some have a dream destination in mind. No matter who we are or what our preferences for moving might be, it’s good to check ourselves before we commit, just to make sure we manage our expectations.
Wherever you and I move, it’s still just life. We still have to pay bills, make friends, see the doctor. We still get old. We still get sick. We still have to maintain our space, our bodies, our diets. Each trade takes and gives. Each place we move, we often bring something that locals may not want.
We could move to one place because of some study promising longer life. We could move to another place because we don’t want to live near (red or blue) neighbors.
This can affect longevity if one of you is stocking up on firearms.
The real truth is that longer life is better guaranteed by the basics: our social structure, good food, lots of movement, and a purpose. It has to do with community, feeling valued, being active and engaged. Having a purpose.
Many of us don’t have the option to move. That can cause us to moon incessantly over somewhere else. We forget how much power we have to transform where we are.
That said, for some of us, it really is time to sell and move, often a factor of age and the demand to downsize and simplify.
I’d spent fifty years in Denver, and I really, truly wanted to live closer to the ocean again. Where it rained. For me, it was a dream. But the dream comes with all the same, and some worse, challenges than I had in Denver.
The Big Think article states:
…Asians and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders definitively outlive other Americans. Is there anything we can learn from them? A confluence of factors may be at play. They tend to have relatively higher socioeconomic status, lower rates of obesity, and the lowest smoking rates of any racial group in the U.S. Healthier traditional cooking may also contribute to their longevity. (author bolded)
If you want longevity, perhaps the real answer is to love more deeply, move your body more, pursue a calling, create a community and invest in it. Make more friends. Reach out to those whose yard signs are different. Learn to cook, perhaps.
No matter where we live, we can choose to bloom where we’re planted. I didn’t say it was easy, nor do I believe that staying where you are is right for everyone. After all, I am peripatetic by nature, and have migrated often.
About that anger, and yes I’m addressing the political situation.
Half my neighbors had opposing political signs. We visit, hug, I pet their dogs, I drop off cookies for one of them because she watches my house and gets my mail when I travel. I would run like hell towards their houses if they were in trouble.
I wasn’t happy about the election, either. AND.
Perhaps one of the simplest secrets of longevity is finding peace with what is and your best way forward, however that looks. I didn’t say give up; I do suggest giving up being so angry. For if you move somewhere else, that anger goes with you.
Likely it won’t be welcomed in that new somewhere else.
So if we move, let’s move away from the restless anger, and point that energy towards something positive. You know what you can do. There’s a lot of work to be done. Find a purpose and put your heart into it.
This is where I’m planted right here, right now. None of my problems went away. I just get to work with them surrounded by big fir trees, caressed by rain. So long as I can afford it, I choose to bloom.
Thank you for reading. We live in extraordinary times. Much is being asked of us no matter our affiliation. I want to produce writing which invites us to think, consider and work towards our best selves. If this intrigued you please consider
A friend told me that she was journaling about all the places that she's ever lived. I found the idea inspiring. Fate and circumstance ushered me into a rootless, Nomadic life of longing for belonging, and wondering where that place of belonging was. From the time I was four until my late thirties, I've moved dozens of times. The angst of that is not nearly as profound in my eldering years as it was in my youth, nonetheless, I am moving again.
Though there is no perfect place; no place that ticks all the boxes; there are places that feel healthier both physically and emotionally. In this third chapter of life, my husband and I have been like two old cats looking for the right patch of sun. Age dictates that this will be the last move.
For us, we hope to land near abundant hiking trails and a close proximity to nature. Spirituality has grown greener in this third chapter and I feel the most at home walking through the woods, belonging to the natural world. Within the folds of that is a desire, is a prayer of purpose to:
". . . love more deeply, move your body more, pursue a calling, create a community and invest in it. Make more friends. Reach out to those whose yard signs are different. Learn to cook, perhaps." Just the right patch of sun . . .
Thank you for a thought provoking post, Julia. Sending all good wishes and goodwill.
A thoughtful message about no matter where we go that anger, or whatever our internal issues will follow. Finding purpose and some good where you are is what will make the change. And yes, community.