The old saying ‘you can worry yourself sick’ might just be true in light of a recent Boston University study showing people with upbeat personalities are more likely to reach old age than neurotic people.

The School of Medicine study, published April 2 in the ‘Journal of American Geriatrics,’ examined the personalities of adults whose parents lived to be older than 100 years old, New England Centenarian Study Director Thomas Perls said. The study found children of centenarians often had outgoing personalities as well as genetic make-up that increased longevity.

‘Instead of dwelling on things or internalizing stress, which can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, these people let go of their stress,’ he said. ‘This is probably a very important part of how these people get to this extreme old age, and why they age so well.’

The New England Centenarian Study, which is the largest study group of centenarians in the world, gave a five-factor personality test to 246 children of centenarians, with the average age of 75, lead study author Jane Givens said.

‘In this study, the offspring of centenarians appear to have distinctive characteristics that may have important implications for their longevity,’ she said.

The results of the personality test showed the offspring of centenarians scored high in what Givens called ‘health-promoting traits’ like conscientiousness and extroversion, and low in ‘health-damaging traits’ like neuroticism.

Neuroticism, which includes anxiousness and depression, is ‘probably not good for you,’ psychology department Chairman Michael Lyons said.

‘In some ways, it’s kind of a no-brainer,’ he said. ‘If someone is emotionally miserable, it’s a risk factor for health problems, and even meaning that someone does not exercise, eat properly or other ways of taking care of one’s self. It relates back to neuroticism in a number of ways.’

Perls said the reduction of health-damaging traits is something important to longevity and a central part of the study’s findings.

‘There’s quite a bit of published evidence that scoring low on neuroticism translates into the ability to manage stress well,’ he said. ‘Managing stress is important to longevity.’

Naturally, increasing health-improving traits like extroversion help as well, Perls said.

‘Scoring high in extroversion translates into the ability to establish social safety nets, with people that you can depend on, and these things create a better situation for the people,’ he said.

These traits can help anyone, not just those who have a family history of longevity, Perls said.

‘People know what they need to do to not hold onto stress, like exercise, meditation or prayer,’ he said. ‘These are behaviors that [they] can adapt to their lives.’

While the study emphasizes the importance of personality traits for longevity, it does not discount the idea that personality may be derived from genetics, Lyons said.

‘Very rarely are there cases when genes and personality are on a one-to-one basis, because that usually happens with disorders, but genes can make you vulnerable to negative emotionality,’ he said. ‘Looking at the offspring of centenarians reflects the environment of growing up with that parent, but even more, it’s about sharing one’s genes with that parent.’