The link between reading and longevity:
Those of you who love to read will be happy to hear this. A new study done by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health found that seniors who read books regularly live nearly two years longer than those who don’t. This study was looking for an association between book reading in older Americans and longevity. It gathered data for readers who read books, those who read newspapers and magazines, and those who don’t read at all. They studied 3,635 people who were 50 years or older, and it was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. 
The findings were interesting, to say the least. Book readers had a “survival advantage” over readers who read newspapers and magazines or didn’t read at all. The book readers had a 20 percent less chance of dying in the next twelve years, than the people in the study who didn’t read books.
More studies will need to be done on this relationship between reading and longevity, but these findings are very validating for those of us who enjoy our reading time every day.
There have been lots of other studies done on the effects of reading on the brain, but these have mostly focused on brain activity during reading, and are typically done with younger participants. The authors of this particular study summed it up by saying this suggests that, “the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.”