Daily Health News Blog

Life looks a little rosier after 50, a new study finds. Older people in their mid- to late-50s are generally happier, and experience less stress and worry than young adults in their 20s, the researchers say. The results, based on a Gallup phone survey from 2008 of more than 340,000 Americans, held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could have contributed to differences in well-being with age, such as whether the participants were married, had children at home or were employed. So if having a partner and getting rid of the kids aren't responsible for the uptick in happiness and general life satisfaction with age, then what is? More studies will be needed to find out, the researchers say. "That can be based on social things, on societal things, on biological things; and for us that is the big question," study researcher Arthur Stone, a psychologist at Stony Brook University in N.Y. Two ways to look at life The findings agree with