You won’t believe it ! Victor Meldrews live longer

WITH his famously short fuse, you might think that grumpy Victor Meldrew was raging himself into an early grave.

But surprising new research has found that a curmudgeonly attitude could help you live longer and ward off Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers in Switzerland have found that people who are unpleasant, unafraid of conflict and happy not to conform – just like Richard Wilson’s character in the BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave – have better-protected brains. In a fouryear study the scientists found that pensioners with this abrasive personality type had less braintissue wastage and fewer clumps of toxic proteins linked to dementia than more kindly souls.

The findings might also explain how Prince Philip, who is also known for his prickly character, remains whip-smart at 98. Psychiatrist Panteleimon Giannakopoulos, who led the research, said: ‘Philip is an example of a person with rather low agreeableness, but possibly high openness to experience.’

The findings were obtained after studying how an initially healthy 526 subjects, between 65 and 89 years old, aged over time

According to results published in the journal Neurobiology Of Aging, certain character traits appear to protect key brain structures against ‘neuro-degeneration’.

‘People who are less agreeable but with a natural curiosity and little conformism show better preservation of the brain regions that tend to lose volume, both in normal aging and in Alzheimer’s disease,’ Prof Giannakopoulos said.

The academic, whose training included a spell at the Maudsley Hospital in South London, said his findings were ‘an important part of a complex puzzle’ which he hopes will help further work on combating dementia.

‘Between the destruction of the first neurons and the appearance of the first symptoms, ten to 12 years elapse,’ he said. ‘The identification of early biomarkers is therefore essential for effective disease management.’

Prince Philip’s reputation for being blunt has been burnished by a number of incidents.

In 1986, he told British exchange students in China: ‘If you stay here much longer you will all be slittyeyed’; in 2001 he told a teenager he was ‘too fat’ to achieve his dream of being an astronaut; and in 2013, he told nurses: ‘ The Philippines must be half empty – you’re all here running the NHS.’