Fame Kills - Stardom May 'Lead To A Shorter Life,' New Study Suggests

A new study suggests that a career characterized by fame may equal a shorter life.

Researchers analyzed obituaries and found that performers and sports celebrities died a few years before people who were successful in other careers that don't involve being in the public eye.

The findings, published in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, were based on 1,000 obituaries from the New York Times between 2009 and 2011.

The average age of death was found to be 77 for careers in areas such as singing, acting, music and sports.

Australian researchers from the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales reported that writers, composers and artists died at 79, while individuals involved in academia like historians and economists died at the average age of 82.

The findings also reveal that those with careers in business and politics died at the age of 83.

And according to the research, lung cancer was the most common killer among performers.

But, despite the study's findings, some experts do not agree that the results are substantial.

"A one-off retrospective analysis like this can't prove anything, but it raises some interesting questions," said Professor Richard Epstein as quoted by BBC Health.

"First, if it is true that successful performers and sports players tend to enjoy shorter lives, does this imply that fame at younger ages predisposes to poor health behaviors in later life after success has faded? Or that psychological and family pressures favoring unusually high public achievement lead to self-destructive tendencies throughout life?" 

And even though that Epstein does not completely agree with the study, he did say that its findings should be used as a "health warning to young people aspiring to become stars."

(SOURCE)