Remarkable Longevity From Mormon Lifestyle

Mark W. Cannon
Danielle Stockton
[2-10-10]

The UCLA Press Release on their latest study of Mormon longevity summarized: “If you want to live a long healthy life, you may want to take a tip from the Mormons…. A group of actively practicing Mormons in California, followed for a 25-year period, had the lowest total death rates and the longest life expectancies ever documented in a well-defined U.S. cohort. The authors believe the findings suggest a model for substantial disease prevention in the general population.”

One of the fruits of Mormonism is that the males that were highly committed to the Mormon lifestyle had a life expectancy of 84.1 years which was 9.8 years greater than that of U.S. white males. Highly committed females had a life expectancy of 86.1 years which was 5.6 years longer than U.S. white females.

These are results from the latest study on Mormon longevity by non-Mormon UCLA Public Health professors James E. Enstrom and Lester Breslow. Breslow is a former Dean of the top tier School of Public Health at UCLA. The Mormon information was drawn from questionnaire responses of 9,815 High Priests and wives.

Enstrom explained in a telephone interview that there was less difference in the comparison of women than of men since women generally live substantially longer than men because of fewer risk factors in their occupations and lives.

A staggeringly significant dimension emerged from this study. The more strictly and constantly Mormons follow Mormon lifestyle elements, the longer they live.

Religiously active LDS men, i.e. High Priests, had a mortality rate over the 25-year period that was only 60 percent of that found in comparably aged white American males. Active Mormon women had a mortality rate that was only 73 percent of the rate for white American women of similar ages.

However, Mormon men who never smoked, attend Church at least weekly, obtained at least 12 years of education, and were married had a mortality rate that was only 50 percent as high as their national counterparts. Mormon women who do the same things had a rate that was only 66 percent of the rate found in the general population of their counterparts.

If you add moderate body mass index, which should apply to most Mormons who long adhere closely to the word of wisdom, the mortality rate for active Mormon men drops to 48 percent of that observed in the general population of men and to 62 percent for Mormon women who follow the Mormon lifestyle compared to women of the same age in the general population.

If you consider regular physical activity and 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night the mortality rate drops to 44% of the national average for men, and for women it is just 57% of the rate observed in their national counterparts. The LDS emphasis on physical activity is exemplified by having gymnasiums with chapels.

The results of their study were published in Preventive Medicine (February 2008). The authors explain: “Active California Mormons practice a healthy lifestyle advocated by their religion, which emphasizes a strong family life, education and abstention from tobacco and alcohol.” In other writings Enstrom has referred to the Mormon belief that the body is the Temple of the spirit. In our interview, Professor Enstrom, stated that he had not seen anything since the study was completed that contradicted its conclusions.

The low LDS mortality findings are in harmony with earlier studies of low Mormon rates of cancer. In one instance the benefits of high Mormon adherence to Church doctrines by men was dramatically shown. John Gardner and Joseph Lyon found that the most devout group, (Seventies and High Priests) had lung cancer rates 80% lower than those in the least devout group. Cancer of the stomach and the leukemias and lymphomas also had lower rated in the most devout group. The most devout Mormon women also had a substantially lower lung cancer rate than the least devout. (American Journal of Epidemiology, Aug. 1982)

Mark W. Cannon was Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Staff Director to the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. He has a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Danielle Stockton was co-editor of the student newspaper and the literary magazine at Madeira School and currently is a student at BYU. This is a shortened version of an article in their blog, www.fruitsofmormonismcom.