Help yourself by helping others
Doing your bit for others really does pay off if you want a longer life. A recent German study found that the risk of dying over a 20-year period was more than a third lower for those who occasionally cared for their grandchildren, compared with hands-off grandparents.
But what if they don’t live nearby, or you don’t have any? Don’t worry – the study found helping your adult children, or non-relatives, led to a longer life, too. Half of all people without children who supported others not related to them lived for seven years after the study began. Non-helpers lived for four more years on average.
‘Until further research is done, we can only speculate about the reasons behind the results,’ says the study’s lead author, Sonja Hilbrand. ‘But previous research points to helping behaviour as a stress buffer.’
But take note, the study was on part-time helping, not full-time. The caveat is that you must set healthy parameters – and not feel burdened or stressed by your caring duties. Q I’m 51 and have a number of moles on my body. I worry about skin cancer, so I check them about once every three months, but should I do it more often as I age?
A‘Melanoma skin cancer does become more common as we get older,’ says Rachel Orritt of Cancer Research UK. ‘However, while it’s important to know what’s normal, there’s no need to check in a set way, or at particular times.’ Getting help with checks from a partner is a good idea, though – they can look at areas you can’t see easily, such as your back. The other important thing to note is that melanoma isn’t always just changes to an existing mole or freckle. ‘It can be a new mole,’ explains Rachel. ‘Or it can appear as a persistent spot that didn’t exist before – show your doctor if you notice a growth or sore that doesn’t heal, itches, oozes or scabs. It probably won’t be cancer but, if it is, spotting it early means that treatment is more likely to be successful.’