Data from the Harvard Study of Adult Development indicates that men with average lives, incomes, and families reported the highest subjective happiness levels compared to high-achievers.
"the Harvard study of aging looked at these people, these men who I think were in their late teens and followed them up to their 60s and 70s... when they looked at the happiness levels of these people, it was the average person who actually would self-report the highest levels of happiness." (said at 0:55:10)
The Harvard Study of Adult Development (which includes the Grant Study of Harvard college men and the Glueck Study of inner-city men) does not report that 'the average person' or men with average incomes/achievements reported the highest subjective happiness. Rather, the study's central and widely published findings indicate that strong social relationships, marital attachment security, emotional stability, and mature coping mechanisms are the primary predictors of late-life happiness and subjective well-being, while occupational achievement and income per se did not dictate happiness.
- context: Security of attachment to spouses in late life: Concurrent and prospective links with cogn… (Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 2015) · cited 63x in the literature
"Higher security was linked concurrently with greater marital satisfaction, fewer depressive symptoms, better mood, and less frequent marital conflicts. Greater security predicted lower levels of negative affect, less depression, and greater life satisfaction 2.5 years later." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - contradicts: Early and Midlife Predictors of Wisdom and Subjective Well-Being in Old Age. (The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 2018) · cited 41x in the literature
"Openness to experiences in early adulthood predicted wisdom 60 years later, whereas greater emotional stability and extraversion predicted subjective well-being." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)
Supplementing with nattokinase naturally helps reduce LDL cholesterol levels.
"I decided to start supplementing with nattokinase, which can naturally help reduce LDL cholesterol, and it did." (said at 1:19:12)
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (PMID: 39076715) evaluated the cardiovascular effects of nattokinase and found that nattokinase monotherapy does not lower LDL cholesterol; in low doses it was associated with slightly higher LDL-C compared to control, and at higher doses there was no statistically significant difference in LDL-C. Clinical trials (e.g., PMID: 19786378) demonstrate that significant LDL reductions occur when nattokinase is combined with red yeast rice (which contains naturally occurring statin compounds like monacolin K), but nattokinase alone does not reliably lower LDL cholesterol.
- contradicts: Combined nattokinase with red yeast rice but not nattokinase alone has potent effects on b… (Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition 2009) · cited 26x in the literature
"After controlling for baseline levels, only the combined group, but not mono group, showed a significant difference (p<0.0001) in TC, LDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratio when compared with the placebo group. In summary, this study provides long-term efficacy of nattokinase supplementation and shows that the combined formula has relatively more potent effects than the mono formula on lowering of blood lipids, suggesting that combined nattokinase with RYR will be a better neutraceutical for patients with hyperlipidemia than nattokinase alone." (abstract, results)
pubmed - contradicts: Nattokinase Supplementation and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-… (Reviews in cardiovascular medicine 2023) · cited 9x in the literature
"Relatively low total dosage of nattokinase had a negative effect on blood total cholesterol (MD [mean difference] = 5.27, 95% CI [confidence intervals]: 3.74 to 6.81, p < 0.00001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD = -2.76, 95% CI: -3.88 to -1.64, p < 0.00001), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD = 6.49, 95% CI: 0.83 to 12.15, p = 0.02)... Nattokinase group with relatively high total dosage also had a higher total cholesterol (MD = 3.18, 95% CI: 2.29 to 4.06, p < 0.00001) than control interventions, but no significant differences were found in levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol." (abstract, results)
pubmedfull study (doi)
Healthy older adults without dementia who score high on self-reported apathy questionnaires have twice the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared to those who do not.
"what we find is that those individuals who score highly on just self-reported questionnaires for motivation, if they score highly for apathy, they have twice the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than people who don't." (said at 2:03:36)
Large-scale prospective evidence contradicts the claim that healthy (cognitively normal) older adults with high apathy have twice the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. In a harmonized analysis of 12,646 older adults across 10 global population-based cohorts (PMID 41457929), baseline apathy was not significantly associated with incident dementia or Alzheimer's disease among cognitively normal or non-depressed individuals. Increased risk was observed only among older adults who already had mild cognitive impairment (MCI) combined with depression, where apathy was associated with an HR of 1.74 for Alzheimer's disease (and 1.62 for all-cause dementia), not twofold.