“I never wake up in a bad mood.” At a hardy and healthy 100, ask beloved actor Dick Van Dyke to what he attributes his long life, and that is the answer you will get!
On the eve of his 100th birthday, the venerable star published a book called “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life.”
Throughout the book Van Dyke credited his upbeat attitude as the most important factor in his extreme longevity. And he is not alone in that assessment. Writing for The Conversation in 2025, health scientist Jolanta Burke explained that emerging research really does suggest that optimists like Van Dyke have a higher chance of living longer.
“Numerous studies have shown that keeping stress levels low and maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook are correlated with longevity,” she noted.
There is obviously no set of rules that can guarantee a ticket to the centenarian life, but there are factors that we can somewhat control.
Optimism may be one of them.
Burke points to a long-term study on novice nuns that began in the 1930s. In their youth, participants were asked to write down the story of their lives. Six decades later, researchers found that those who expressed more positive emotion lived an average of ten years longer.
More recently, a 2019 study from the United Kingdom found that optimism is specifically related to a longer life span, up to 15 percent longer on average.
Among two large cohorts, those who were more optimistic had greater odds of achieving “exceptional longevity,” the researchers reported. That means they lived to 85 or beyond.
Why Is Optimism Good for Longevity?
Scientists aren’t yet sure, but they have a few ideas about why a positive state of mind may bestow health.
Positivity is often linked to happiness, a sense of purpose, and satisfying relationships, all of which are associated with longer lifespans.
The world’s longest study on happiness has been running since 1938, and after nearly nine decades, hundreds of peer-reviewed papers, and countless questionnaires, medical check-ups, and in-person interviews, a clear pattern has emerged.
The best predictor of a happy and meaningful life is not ‘good’ genes, the study authors found in a recent analysis, but how good our lives feel to us.
Participants who were most satisfied with their community of friends and family in middle age were the healthiest at age 80. They were also less likely to have diseases and more likely to recover from illnesses.
Scientists are not sure why that is, but they suspect that a rich social life provides some protective buffering against the stresses and anxieties of the day.
Today, some scientists estimate that reaching age 90 can be explained by 30 percent genetics and 70 percent health behaviors, such as diet or physical activity.
A positive state of mind may be one of those factors, and our loved ones may be an important way to achieve that positivity.
As to Van Dyke, he has another way of putting it.
“Old age is part fact, part state of mind, part luck,” he wrote in another book, called Keep Moving: And Other Truths About Living Well Longer.
He might be on to something. A twinkle in your eye and a pep in your step may not only add life to your years, but years to your life.
