A raw, vulnerable episode on how relationships and community are related to healthy longevity.
You may have noticed there wasn’t an episode last week. That’s because I’ve spent two weeks working on this topic: relationships relative to longevity. I share how relationships seem fractured since the pandemic and my own challenges connecting. My perspective feels rocky, but there is a desire to lean into human connection with each of you and continue sharing in hopes of strengthening community and our bond to one another. While the national mood and media would have us focus on our differences, our humanity invites us to lean into our commonalities.
In this episode, I talk about the Blue Zone communities around the globe, where humans have the most longevity and lifespan. I also detail a Harvard study on adult development which says that relationships are the key to happiness — not professional success, wealth, or education.
Listen in to hear how relationships are the key to healthy longevity, current data and research about life expectancy, and my outlook on my relationship to connection and desire to continue showing up with and for all of you if hearing my voice weekly is beneficial.
If you are enjoying these conversations, please subscribe and spread the love by leaving a review and sharing it with your friends. And if my voice is a voice you want to hear, please reach out and let me know. From my heart to yours.
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host, Dana frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality, and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:52
Hi, everyone. I'm Dana Frost, your host coming to you this week from Chicago to talk about how relationships and community are related to healthy longevity. I have to confess that I struggled with crafting this episode, I've been working on it for two weeks, some of my regular listeners would notice that I did not post an episode last week. My hope is that this conversation is relevant because I believe this topic is vitally important. And if we don't turn the tide, on community connections and intimate relationships, we will all lose especially the younger generations. What I see is this cultural tie that is pitting one person against another. And I see this over and over again. It's like everywhere we turn, there's a reason to see our differences instead of our commonalities.
Dana Frost 01:58
And we have more in common than differences because we are all humans. I am going to start in the most likely place and the easiest place to start. You have probably heard about the Blue Zones, the communities around the globe where people live the longest, and they are the healthiest as they age. So they have both lifespan and health span. So those places in case you don't know where they are Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, Nicoya, Costa Rica, I don't know how you pronounce this place in Greece, but Ikaria, Greece and Loma Linda, California. Okay, so when this episode goes live, I will have celebrated my 57th year. And this might be why I've been thinking a lot about relationships, and I wanted to bring the conversation to the podcast. To be honest, since a pandemic, I have felt less secure in my relationships. So I wanted to acknowledge this. And I don't think that I'm alone. Relationships definitely shifted during the pandemic. And my perception is that we are all still trying to find a new normal. So you'll see during our conversation, how long devotee is declining, as relationships become fractured. So I mentioned these places, the blue zones where people have the long the have healthspan and lifespan.
Dana Frost 03:28
And I'm going to I'm going to circle back to that later. What we know about those communities is that the most common variable has to do with their relationships and community. But before we go there, I want to take you to the Harvard study on adult development. It is the longest study on human happiness. And according to this study, they found the key to a good life is guess what? It is not professional success. It's not wealth, and it's not even education. So the study started in 1938 with 724 participants. It included boys from disadvantaged and troubled families in Boston, and Harvard undergraduates. The study incorporated the spouses of the original men, and more recently added more than 1300 descendants of the initial group. You can read about that study online, but what I want to share is the conclusion, good relationships lead to health and happiness. But those relationships must be nurtured regardless of income or education, relationships are the standout happiness factor.
Dana Frost 04:52
You know, I started thinking about this as I read that study. I thought about my own upbringing and I thought about How I saw my parents and my grandmother moved through their lifespan. And I grew up in just a regular middle class American family, a blue collar family. But my parents had a very strong sense of community. And we were, I grew up with two grandmothers, we had Sunday dinner, you know, we saw our grandmother's regularly, we saw our family members regularly. My mom and dad had lots of different friends. And we were involved in community during my upbringing. And I could say that I watched, you know, my parents take care of their friends and their friends reciprocate. And, you know, in hindsight, I can see, even as I watch, you know, my mom's community today that many of the people are in lower income levels, and yet they have this very strong sense of responsibility towards one another. And I often say, it's a big reason why my mom does so well. She just has a very strong community.
Dana Frost 06:06
And so then, you know, I have that experience. And then I think about my experience in my life, in my adult life, and I've been exposed to people from all different walks of life, different internationals, because we lived abroad, different income levels, higher income levels. And what I could see so clearly is just because you have a lot of wealth or resources, it doesn't mean that you're happy, it doesn't mean that you have better relationships. So I could say that I've seen firsthand that regardless of income or education, because I've been in both realms from my upbringing, to being with all different income classes, because I actually went to a high school that had more of the, the wealthy and educated people in our community. What I witnessed just my own anecdotal experience is that it shows what this Harvard study showed is that education wealth, are not necessary factors in terms of happiness, and lifespan. I'm gonna fumble around a little bit on this episode, because this was really hard for me to craft, something that I thought would be relevant to you.
Dana Frost 07:25
That's the Harvard study. Now let's go back to the Blue Zones, more than half of the common variables. And if you look at most charts and conversations about the Blue Zones, there are nine different areas, more than half of the areas have something to do with being in relationship with other people. One of the things is drinking one glass of wine each day with friends, one has to do with belonging in a faith based community. Another one has to do with surrounding yourself with a healthy social circle. Another one is putting your loved ones first. So investing time with your family and your friends, finding your purpose, knowing your why. So your purposes, obviously, I see that there's going to be in the context of community. So there's this simplicity that I see in the Blue Zones, where there is a considerable amount of time spent in human to human connection. These blue zones have fewer distractions, it's a more simplistic way of living, I would be really curious to see the next generation in these blue zones, the next generation that would be I would assume more digitally wired than previous generations and what that impact would be on the next generations
Dana Frost 08:51
longevity. So now I want to look at how life expectancy has declined. And sadly, it's declining in our younger populations. So we know that life expectancy dropped globally during the pandemic. What we can see in the data is that other countries outside of the US rebounded in 2021. Except for the US, the US hit its lowest life expectancy in two decades. I've mentioned this in a previous podcast episode entitled state of our health.
Dana Frost 09:27
So what happened through the 90s is that life expectancy increased. It increased through the 90s leading up to 2010. And it stagnated and it stayed stagnant until the pandemic. So interestingly, what I'm curious about is why is it what I was curious about? And I looked into this for the episode, why is it that life expectancy in the US did not rebound post pandemic? And what I found was staggering that the Life Expectancy did not rebound because it was driven by deaths of despair from the ages of 25 to 64, there was an increase in deaths from drug suicide, and alcohol abuse and Cardiometabolic issues, including obesity and diabetes. And then we can go to this other statistic that I found that death rates among children. So this is the age range between 10 and 19. The death rates were trending upward after the pandemic. So what they saw is that child and adolescent mortality rates in the US rose by 20%. So this is just before 2019 and 2021. So just before the pandemic and after the pandemic, the largest increase in mortality rates in over 50 years.
Dana Frost 10:57
This is according to an editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These increases followed decades of progress and lowering the rates of death from childhood diseases, and the alarming spike and pediatric mortality is primarily due get this to deaths from Homicide, accidental drug overdoses, motor vehicle accidents, and suicide among those ages 10 to 19. The new research is based on a detailed examination of death certification data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This analysis revealed that the mortality rate among Americans ages one to 19. So we increased the age range, one to 19, rose by 11%, between 2019 and 2020, and an additional 8%, between 2020 and 2021. So, wow, if that doesn't give you reason for pause, I don't know what would. So these are manmade manmade pathogens, that I believe reflect relationship deprivation. So you tell me, how are we doing collectively in relationships? It's not just the adults feeling less secure in relationships. The younger generation is suffering, too. I believe that we are at this critical fork in the road for our younger generation. And it's not, it's not about throwing more money at the problem. So let's look at some expenditures. If we look at health consumption, expenditures per capita. And then the nearest year that I could find was 2021. Per capita, the US spends on health $12,000.09 114 cents per person.
Dana Frost 12:56
Germany is next at just over 7000, Switzerland just over 7000, the Netherlands, almost 7000, Austria 6500, Sweden, 6200, France 6000. So we see that the US spends almost double other countries. So to me, it's not really, that we're not spending enough money, I do think that we're missing, how do we address mental health issues in our country. Now, if we look at education, so what is the US spend on education, and this, this really backs up? The fact that it's not about education and wealth in terms of longevity and happiness? What I mentioned earlier, so the US, it's spent around 800 billion in education, in 2019, and 2020. And that's for public education.
Dana Frost 13:57
So per average, average per student, it was about 17,000 per public school student. If you look at private education, that amount is much higher. I didn't get that number. But I know just talking to friends who privately educated their children, it was probably 35,000 per student. So lots of money is being spent on education. And if we look at the military spending, the US spends almost $900 billion on military spending. So that's more than what we spend on education, but education spending because it's funded federally, but it's mostly funded locally, and it's funded depending upon where you live pulling different funding sources. But if we look at the military spending, we're spending $900 billion that so one thing I want you to note is that the US the budget for military spending in the US, is more than the combined budgets of all the governments in the world.
Dana Frost 15:04
That makes me pause. I found a graph that showed the US spent $877 billion in 2021. No, it was this one is for the fiscal year of 2022. The combined budgets of the other top defense spending budgets in the world was $849 billion. So this is how I'm thinking about this. How much money are we spending that is fueling this collective energy of opposition. So when I think of opposition, I'm thinking sympathetic nervous system, which is fight or flight, that's opposition, versus parasympathetic, which is calming everything down. This gravitational pole that this collective gravitational pull to be in fight and flight, or sympathetic nervous system as a collective, we will never heal the relationship deficits that we have, because we're operating from fight and flight, as a collective. How do we want to deal with this is just like so heavy on my heart? What's my responsibility in all of this? There are so many podcasts about longevity, and I don't want to be just another podcast about longevity. And so I'm really thinking deeply. What's the purpose of these conversations I'm having with you? And are they worth your time, but let's just say, longevity, and health. It's not about money. Relationships play the primary factor in longevity and health. We are spending billions of dollars in our modern world, and yet we are starving for real connection. The death statistics show that our younger people in our society are turning to drugs, pharmaceutical and recreational drugs to meet the needs that can only be met by another breathing, fellow human that can touch, feel, hear see them, person to person, that is how we heal. And but how do we shift this collective energy? I would love your input on this, I'd love to have a back and forth conversation.
Dana Frost 17:33
I have to be really honest with you since my return from Bali, I am having a hard time finding my voice for this podcast. Why is this microphone important? And what can I share with you that is worthy of your time. Because what I believe what we need at this critical juncture in history, we have to take care of the relationships that are in our direct environment, those relationships where we have influence our families, our friends, the people we work with making sure that the people we are touching we are seeing are cared for that if they need something that we can be there to meet their needs, we have to be present and available to those people in our direct environments. I just feel so distracted by the digital world. And that's why I've been less I've pulled away I have, it's almost like I feel allergic to engaging in the digital world since my return.
Dana Frost 18:34
And I know that that's not necessarily the answer. But when I plug in, I feel even opening my email when I'm so curious, are you feeling the same way that I'm feeling? There's just an agenda. Everyone has an agenda. And I don't want to be another person in your ear that has an agenda. Listen to me, listen to what I have to say buy what I have to sell. This is important. I don't want to be another person with an agenda. Because that's not what we need. We need people who, who simply care about us, and can help us care for one another. Because I can never be a substitute for an in person connection. nothing substitutes for that. And that's what I experienced in Bali in this very deep rich level is this connection with these people that I was in community with while I was away and I definitely have that connection with my family. I feel like it's harder and harder to get connection with my close friends. I don't know if you feel that same way I'm definitely pursuing that just be in person with people caring for people. But what I know is that how I was functioning before I went to Bali it no longer fits. And you know, rethinking everything that I do and as I wrap up this convert Session on relationships. I really want to hear from you because I will be frank, I am not ruling out putting this podcast on pause. But I want to know because if hearing my voice matters to you each week, if there are things that I'm sharing with you that you're not hearing in other places, if my voice is a voice, you need to hear, you want to hear, I will show up for you.
Dana Frost 20:27
Because then I know that each one of you individually you that is the micro level. And if my voice matters to you, I will show up for you. But if this podcast is just another podcast, and any other podcasts would substitute, then I need to, I need to be out so that I create more space for the in person human human connections that I have. I believe the human race is at war with itself. And we need to turn the tide from opposition to being for one another skin to skin, eye to eye I see you ear to hear I hear you, shoulder to shoulder lean on my shoulder and can I lean on yours? How are we going to heal, we are going to heal when we slow down, we are going to heal when we move into that parasympathetic mode, the slowing down, rest, less, not more caring, touching, being together.
Dana Frost 21:37
And there's not enough money in the world to heal all of that. I guess what I'm proposing is that we roll back our digital connection. And we move back into human connection person to person and I honestly I'm going to tell you I don't I'm at a real impasse, I am sure that it's human to human and more in person. I'm not sure how to be effective in the digital space. And I would just love to hear from you. So I do have some podcast recordings that I will be posting. But I'm really looking forward to hearing from you please let me hear what you experience from my voice and if that's a necessary voice for you to hear on a regular basis.
Dana Frost 22:35
So I want to thank you for being with me today in this episode that felt Rocky from my perspective but necessary. Thank you for being here. You know that as always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours if you like this podcast, please subscribe. Let me know if my voice is unnecessary voice and feeling younger while growing older. To me this week means that I am present in the moment with the other humans in my life. Thank you so much, everybody. Bye bye.