Personality and Longevity: Knowns, Unknowns, and Implications for Public Health and Personalized Medicine

Table 2

Potential mediators of personality-longevity associations.

Behavioral	Biological
Alcohol use	Cortisol, markers of HPA Axis function
Cigarette smoking and tobacco use	Epinephrine/Norepinephrine, markers of SAM Axis Function
Physical activity and exercise	Inflammatory Markers
BMI	Adaptive Immune Markers (Natural Killer Cells, White Blood Cell Count)
Illicit drug use; abuse of prescription medications	Markers of oxidative stress
Specific eating habits	Lipids and sclerotic activity
Accidents	Neurodegeneration associated with HPA axis dysregulation
Sexual risk behavior	Markers of metabolic dysregulation such as insulin resistance
Health risk perception and evaluation	Genetic Markers of Disease and Longevity
Health service use	Telomere shortening and other markers of impaired genetic replication
Health care adherence; communication with health care providers; trust in health care delivery system	Mechanisms of pain and somatic sensitivity
Sleep behavior; dental hygiene
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use
Health beliefs and somatic sensitivity
Recruitment of social support; informal help-seeking