Women Who Talk Too Much Live Way Longer, According to a Study

Next time someone complains about how much you talk, consider it good news. Communicating extensively not only helps you create and nurture deeper social bonds and express yourself more accurately, experts believe it might also be a predictor of a long life expectancy.

Bright Side will guide you through the discoveries of recent studies that suggest that those who talk for too long, also live for a long time.

It’s a popular scientific concept that the length of our life length depends on our genes. Some experts even study what they call the “longevity gene,” which is a gene that is responsible for repairing DNA more efficiently. Recent research suggests that our longevity doesn’t solely depend on genetics, but also on how much we talk.

A group of scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yeshiva University, in the United States, studied the number of words that we speak and how they affect our life expectancy. They found that outgoing, chatty people, who present more tolerable, positive, and optimistic behaviors and ideas, have a better quality of life, which increases their longevity.

The investigation, directed by Dr. Nir Barzilai, studied 500 older adults between the ages of 95 and 100, focusing on the relationship between their personalities and their genetics. The personality analysis revealed some amusing results: people who perceived themselves as being more positive also enjoyed talking a lot.

And they’re not the only ones who have reached this conclusion. Spanish psychiatrist, Luis Rojas Marcos, explains in his book, We Are What We Speak, that people who speak more than 15,000 words per day live longer than those who speak less. According to Dr. Rojas Marcos, “talkative” people live feeling a sense of fulfillment, are healthier, and enjoy longer lives.

Interestingly, his findings could back up the studies that explain why women live longer than men since it’s women who usually speak more because of their high levels of the FOXP2 protein, also known as “the language protein.” Scientists believe that higher levels of FOXP2 make women speak, on average, 20,000 words a day, while men say only around 7,000 words per day. There’s a 13,000-word difference worth noticing.

Are you chatty and do you like this good news? Or do you believe genetics still plays a more important role in longevity? Tell us why in the comment section below!