A study in 2015 undertaken by The Holiday Retirement surveyed centenarians – people who have lived for 100 years or more.
It incorporated questions relating to what it entailed to live a long and meaningful life. The recipients of the survey shared that they believed their longevity was boosted by saving money early on, spending time with family, staying active and solving problems instead of running away from them.
However, 109-year-old Jessie Gallan who was born in Scotland was adamant concerning the main reason why she had enjoyed a long and fruitful life.
Although Gallan shared that she had always eaten porridge her whole life and stayed active and independent her main reason for achieving her long life although unconventional seemed to work just fine for her.
‘My secret to a long life has been staying away from men,’ shared Gallan. ‘They’re just more trouble than they’re worth.’
Gallan’s views have been verified to a degree by another study conducted by the research team of Professor Stefan Felder of Magdeburg University, Germany.
The stress of leading dual roles as home keepers and working women is believed to be one of the key elements that are killing off female spouses earlier than their single contemporaries.
Women are also statistically more involved with rearing children and caring for older relatives, increasing the burden of work they undertake, which undermines their own health and well-being.
Wedding vows should come with a warning for women. The new research reveals that while wedlock enables men to live longer, it shortens a woman’s life by more than a year.
Marriage bestows husbands an extra 1.7 years but it deletes an average of 1.4 years off the average wife’s lifespan, according to the study of 100,000 people across Europe.
The research also revealed that the effect of regular sex could be detrimental to women’s longevity while benefiting men’s due to hormonal changes.
These findings were simultaneously released with the Office of National Statistics figures showing that life expectancy rose by 5.1 years for British men between 1981 and 2002 but only by 3.7 years for women.
Gallan who avoided men certainly proved her point by defying the odds and living to such an old age.
Gallan became Scotland’s oldest woman following the death of Clare Dawson, of Glasgow, in June 2013 at the age of 109.