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By Michael Brickey, Ph.D., ABPP
With a little luck, there’s no reason why you can’t live to be one hundred. Once you’ve done that, you’ve got it made, because very few people die over one hundred.
–George Burns
“The race is not always to the swift.”
(Moral to Aesop’s Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare)
In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise is clearly the winner. The tortoise had a clear sense of purpose and a natural sense of pacing. The hare had impressive speed but poor planning. Not everyone will be able to live to 150 or longer. The challenge is to manage our resources well by changing what we can change and making the best of what we cannot change–that is, learning to adapt and cope well.
As with many complex systems, just one thing going wrong, however, can be fatal. Longevity requires giving special attention to “the weakest link in the chain.” Most people only expect their cars to last five to ten years and their bodies to last about eighty years. If the car you have now were the only car you would ever have, what would you be willing to do to take care of it and make it last a lifetime? There are people who take very good care of Model T cars and they run and look as good as new. If you take good care of your mind and body, you have a good chance to live a healthy, vital life for 150 years or more.
Here are the four variables that will determine who will live to 150 or longer:
Note that lifestyle choices are mental factors in that you choose your lifestyle. Even luck is to some extent mental in that your attitudes, beliefs, coping skills, and lifestyle choices have a lot to do with your luck. Heredity is currently 30% of the equation. Genetic engineering, however, is destined to reduce that percentage in the next few decades. Thus, 70% or more of longevity depends on your mental choices and paths.
When 2,032 adults were asked how long they want to live, 63% cited an age less than 100.1 Respondents who were between 18 and 24 saw “old” as 58 while those over 65 said old starts at 75. Respondents feared living longer because of:
Let’s look at each concern:
Declining health: As previously noted, people who take good care of themselves mentally and physically are living a lot healthier, as well as a lot longer. Many centenarians are in good health and have sharp minds until their last few years of life. People who die before 100 are more likely to have had prolonged illnesses than people who live past 100.
Lack of money: For most people, having enough money to live for well over 100 years means not retiring at the arbitrary age of 65, but continuing to work, at least part-time, for many more years. Healthy longevity requires productivity and a sense of purpose. Just playing golf for several decades would get pretty dull.
Losing mental faculties: Most centenarians are sharp mentally. To stay sharp mentally, you do have to continually learn and use your mind. It’s a “use it or lose” it proposition. Scientists have prevented and cured Alzheimer’s disease in mice and appear likely to find a prevention and cure for Alzheimer’s disease for humans within a few decades. It is likely that genetic engineering and supplements will enhance our thinking and memories at all ages.
Becoming a burden on family: If you maintain good health and earn income after 65, it is unlikely that you would be a burden on your family.
Being isolated or alone: If you have no friends, it is your own doing–make some.
Living in a nursing home: You can just say no to nursing homes. There are many alternatives.
The survey responses appear to have been based on what respondents saw their parents’ generation experience rather than considering what the future is likely to bring. For most people their quality of life as they age is the result of the choices they have made. True, some people are blessed with better health than others and accidents happen, but we can all make the best of our circumstances.
American society is very youth oriented and there is a lot of mythology about older people. The research indicates that centenarians are very independent people and often in good health. But there is a trick. You have to stay healthy most of your life to get to 100.
Attitudes, Beliefs And Coping Skills
Ask and you will receive.
Seek and you will find.
Knock, and it will be opened to you. –Matthew 7:7If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life,
you must accept the terms it offers you.
–T. S. Eliot, The Confidential ClerkOnce you are physically capable of winning a gold medal, the rest is 90% mental. –Patti Johnson
Give your mind a vision and it sets out to fulfill it. Develop the attitudes, beliefs, and coping skills for longevity and you have the tools. With the vision, mental skills, and spirit of a pioneer, you can fulfill the dream. This is not to say that just wishing something makes it so. It is to say that:
There is a large amount of evidence that living to 150 or longer is possible for tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in our lifetime.
There is a large amount of research that shows that people who have a mission, purpose, optimism, and good coping skills live a lot longer, happier lives.
These longevity traits can be learned.
The default for not taking charge and seeking vital, healthy longevity as a goal is being sucked into conventional wisdom and lifestyles, e.g., “Act your age.” “Well, what do you expect when you get to be your age?” or “Of course you can’t, you’re not as young as you used to be.”
When you believe you can live to 150 or longer, your mind makes it a part of your identity and becomes alert to ideas and information on how to do it. It’s like buying a new car and suddenly noticing that model everywhere. Most of us have worked at an organization that was bureaucratic, lifeless, and demoralizing. It saps your energy and spirit. If you have been fortunate enough to work for an organization that has a real sense of vision, you know how going to work can be exciting and give you energy. The same is true for your life.
Fifty years ago people often worked for the same employer their whole career. Today most people have had at least several jobs, and careers are full of ups and downs and soul searching. Consequently, having exceptional coping skills, a clear sense of who you are, and a mission have become more vital to mental health and longevity.
Just below the surface level with all its to-do lists are the programs that run our lives. There are metaphors, admonitions, self-talk, and self-expectations. Most computer users only know how to use the word processor, Email, and perhaps a spreadsheet. Those who are sophisticated, however, can change the settings and even the programs to do incredible things. The user and software are more important than the hardware as long as the hardware is adequate. A sophisticated computer user with an “archaic” 5-year-old computer can run circles around an unsophisticated user with the newest and fastest computer. Living longer and healthier and happier is about the settings and software that enable you to program your life to live a vital life for 150 years or longer. It doesn’t require an extraordinary IQ. It does require imagination, flexibility, desire, and self-discipline. The rewards will last you a very long lifetime.
No one believed a human could break the 4-minute mile. It was like a limit set by God. Roger Bannister1 believed it could be done and used different training regimens, strategies, and beliefs than others runners used. Within months of his breaking the 4-minute mile barrier in 1954, he and another runner broke his record. Since 1954, there have been 17 official new record times for the mile. The current record is now 3 minutes and 44.39 seconds. Today, dozens of high school students can run a mile in less than 4 minutes.
Just wishing something doesn’t make it so and just wishing for long, vital life doesn’t make it happen. Beliefs about what invariably happens to people as they age, however, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that limits our longevity. Like Roger Bannister, we need to believe it is possible to do something most people don’t think can be done–to live to 150 or longer. Like Roger Bannister we need to develop strategies to achieve new milestones. Longevity experts said the limit of human longevity is 115 years or possibly 120. In 1998 a French woman, Jeanne Calment, lived to 122. (She probably would have lived longer if she hadn’t smoked cigarettes most of her life and if she had agreed to cataract surgery.) Now that the longevity limit mystique has been shattered, several new records will probably be set in the next 10 to 15 years. Within a few decades genetic engineering will enable physicians to turn on or turn off many of the genes that control diseases and aging.
While living longer stretches your mind, the principles are research-based. By research-based I don’t mean a knee jerk reaction to the latest study but a careful consideration of the context of research, the preponderance of evidence, and the biases and perspectives of the researchers. For example, Martin Seligman3 conducted extensive research on optimism and found that:
Thirty-five percent of third and fourth graders experience at least one episode of severe depression. Optimistic children were far less likely to experience depression or stay depressed. Pessimistic children were far more likely to become depressed and have their depression worsen or recur. Needless to say depressed children’s school performance deteriorates.
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) freshmen who were optimists were more likely to have better first semester grades than their high school grades and SAT aptitude tests suggested. Pessimistic freshmen were more likely to have lower grades than expected.
At West Point each year about one hundred freshman quit within the first two months. Seligman found that those who quit were more likely to have been pessimists. As at Penn State, the optimists outperformed their high school grades and SATs while the pessimists underperformed them.
When Metropolitan Life Insurance Company included optimism in their selection process for life insurance agents, their new agents sold more insurance and stayed with the company longer.
Male Harvard graduates were in reasonably good health until age 45 when the men who were pessimistic at 25 began having significantly more health problems than the men who were optimistic at 25. The difference became even more pronounced at 60. While the Harvard research looked at many factors, optimism was the strongest predictor of health after 45.
Optimists are less likely to get sick.
Optimists are more likely to survive cancer and less likely to have recurrences of cancer.
When baseball players made optimistic remarks to the press, their team’s winning percentages tended to increase. When players made pessimistic remarks, their team’s winning percentages tended to decline.
Basketball teams whose players’ statements in newspaper sports columns reflected optimism outperformed the point spreads.
The good news is that optimism can be learned.
From 1940 to 1970 gerontologist Belle Boone Beard gathered data on 12,000 centenarians. She administered questionnaires to 3,000 of them, personally interviewed several hundred, and conducted projective psychological testing with 200 of them. She summarized the “substance” of their longevity as their “thinking, feeling, believing, and doing while surviving successfully.”4
Research that follows people over long periods of time is rare and especially valuable. One of these studies followed male Harvard undergraduates from their freshman year to their sixties.5 It included extensive health and psychological testing and interviews every few years. The study found that the most successful subjects had better “adaptive” skills, including:6
Each of these adaptive skills can be learned and cultivated.
Intelligence gives you the ability to adapt to changes. While there are many high IQ people who don’t make good use of their intelligence, intelligence is a big advantage in dealing with the massive changes in the 21st century. Lifelong learners will be at a distinct advantage in earning money and appreciating health and lifestyle issues.
The current generation of centenarians often were independent, self-reliant individuals who had little use for doctors. Future centenarians are likely to be people who conscientiously monitor their health, make considerable use of preventive healthcare, and are quite sophisticated about health and risk issues. Like current centenarians they will consider themselves responsible for their own health and see doctors as consultants. These factors change the equation for longevity, making intelligence and lifelong learning more important and genetics less important to longevity.
Lifestyle Choices
“Society expects older people to be sedentary, and many expect it of themselves. Only 10% of Americans over 65 jog, play tennis, cross-country ski, or engage in other vigorous exercise on a regular basis. The inactive majority lose about 30% of their strength and 40% of their muscle mass between ages 20 and 70 . . . remaining athletic for life can halt much of the debilitation that was once thought to be an inevitable part of aging.1
Lifestyle issues are critical to longevity. Some of the most critical choices are:
Some people will have health problems that will limit their chances of living a long life. Certainly people who are grossly overweight will have difficulty passing 100. Some disabilities fit well with Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.’s admonition that the key to a long life is to have a low level chronic illness that you have to take care of. Some disabilities like diabetes, however, wear out the body prematurely. Hopefully, medical advances will help with such diseases.
You can have a long, happy life without being particularly achievement oriented. If we look at current centenarians, some, like the Delany sisters, were accomplished professionals. Others had more modest work histories and achievements. Current centenarians were born before 1900 and averaged less than an eighth grade education. Now 80% of Americans over 25 have a high school degree and one-third have a college education. Today’s complex world favors lifelong learners. Having money to spend on taking care of yourself helps as well. People who can achieve a good income without killing themselves in the process also have an advantage. They will worry less about finances and be able to afford health care, education, and other resources to foster their longevity.
Luck
Finally, there is just plain luck. In 150 years everyone experiences difficulties and tragedies. Some people, however, experience more tragedies than others. In some cases this is random luck. In many cases our life choices increase or decrease risks.
Let me make an analogy between these factors and automobiles. Yes, some of us are Chevys, some Camrys, and some of us are lucky enough to be Lexuses (i.e., our heredity defines our physical capabilities and hardiness). A well-maintained Chevy, however, will outlast an abused Lexus. Some cars are more “intelligent” than others and self-diagnose problems and give you a warning when fluid levels are low or other problems have developed. These cars have an advantage in prompting the maintenance they need just as intelligent people are more resourceful than less intelligent people. Cars have lifestyles–where and how they are driven, whether they are kept in a garage, etc. Mental factors include having an owner who practices preventive maintenance and attends to updates and recalls. The car’s health management includes oil changes, car washes, washing off salt, and early identification and correction of problems. Finally, there is the luck factor of not being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being in an accident. There are Chevys that are almost a hundred years old now because they were treated with tender loving care.
Genetics And Its Declining Role In Longevity
There are no such things as incurable, there are only things for which man has not found a cure.–Bernard Baruch8
Height is 65% hereditary and IQ is 60% hereditary.9 Longevity, however, is only 30% hereditary. The most respected research concerning heredity and longevity comes from Danish studies of twins.10 It is no accident that the research came from Denmark. They keep extraordinarily good vital statistics and are able to track data for decades. The twins study compared the longevity of identical twins with the longevity of fraternal twins. Since identical twins come from one egg that divided after conception, each child has identical genes. Fraternal twins, on the other hand, come from two eggs fertilized by two different sperm resulting in children who differ as siblings normally differ.
The life spans of identical twins varied by an average of 14.5 years–suggesting a large environmental influence. Life spans of fraternal twins varied by an average of 18.7 years–indicating that genetics did play a role as well. To simplify some complicated methodological analysis, the researchers determined that 30% of longevity is attributable to heredity. No subsequent research has seriously challenged its 30% figure. Albert Jacquard, a population expert, concluded that knowing how long your parents lived would increase your ability to predict your life span by a mere 2.6% compared to the expected life span for your age.11
There are several studies currently underway studying centenarians. One of the most sophisticated centenarian studies is the New England Centenarian Study directed by Thomas Perls and Associate Director Margery Silver.12 Their data suggest that centenarians are distinguished by the mental traits that are the focus of this book and by not getting sick. The centenarians they studied typically were exceptionally healthy physically and mentally virtually all of their lives. The centenarians averaged only one medication each. In interviewing family members about deceased centenarians, Perls and Silver found that most had a disability only during the last four years of their lives.
What most people fear about aging is becoming disabled, demented, and vegetating at a nursing home. The Perls and Silver centenarians certainly did not present such a picture. Rather they illustrated a phenomenon called “compressed morbidity” in which disability is “compressed” into the last few years of life.11 Studies of aging and disability have shown a 1-2% decline in disability rates each year since the U.S. government started keeping statistics in1982.14
Perls and Silver also found that their centenarians had a disproportionate number of close relatives with long life spans. They concluded that while the Danish studies probably apply to most people, centenarians might be drawn from a different pool of genes with extraordinary longevity. The theory is intriguing and might have merit. Certainly collaborating studies are needed. Even if they are right, it is not clear whether their findings will generalize beyond the current generation of centenarians. Life was less complex for that generation and many of the diseases they had to survive have been cured. Also, the advent of genetic engineering and other medical advances is destined to lessen the importance of genetics.
It is not possible to predict exactly how much of longevity is due to genetics because it is a moving target. Let me illustrate with a personal example. As a young child, my son had a lot of ear infections. Without antibiotics (which came into common use in the 1950s) and/or tubes in his ears (which became common in the 1980s), he probably would have become deaf or died before he reached puberty unless we isolated him from other children. Because of medical advances, the genetics that gave him a high susceptibility to ear infections did not affect his longevity. When he was 10 years old, he became very sick and visits to the pediatricians and the hospital emergency room were fruitless. My wife and mother-in-law, however, remembered that a week before his illness he had visited a part of the country in which Lyme’s disease was a problem. After some Internet research, we returned to the hospital emergency room and told the doctor what the illness was and insisted on an antibiotic right away. The symptoms cleared within twenty-four hours. The antibiotic, parental detective work, and readily accessible consumer information prevented a long-term disability.
One of the most powerful genetic factors in who dies before 70 is susceptibility to infectious diseases.15 Some diseases, like small pox, have been eradicated. Polio is well on its way to a similar fate. Tetanus, tuberculosis, and hundreds of other disabling or fatal diseases are now treatable. Genetic traits that previously limited longevity might favor longevity for other diseases. For example, sickle cell anemia is resistant to malaria. Today we can easily cure malaria but we do not have a cure for sickle cell anemia yet. AIDS only became common in the 1980s. Who gets AIDS will be determined mostly by lifestyles, general levels of health, and genetic resistance to AIDS. As scientists learn how to treat and cure AIDS, genetic susceptibility to AIDS becomes less important to longevity. For diabetes, cancer, and many other diseases, medicine is making considerable inroads in better managing, treating or curing the disease. In short, advances in health care affect whether a genetic trait will affect longevity.
Consider how different the world was for current centenarians vs. Baby Boomers. Prior to 1920 most meats were heavily salted or smoked to preserve them because refrigerators were uncommon. Antibiotics were not commonly used until the 1950s. The sun’s ozone layer did not become a serious problem until the 1980s. In the current centenarians’ generation promiscuity and divorce were rare and most adults had one or only a few sexual partners in their lifetimes. With our society’s premium on jobs with intellectual skills, genetic traits that cause severe disabilities don’t necessarily impair one’s ability to earn a substantial living, but intellectual deficits often limit a person to a minimum wage job.
Culture plays a factor. When our society glamorized smoking cigarettes, secondary smoke was unavoidable in urban settings. Genes that resist lung cancer were more critical to longevity. Our diets have changed. On the one hand fresh produce is readily available. On the other hand highly processed foods and fast foods have become prevalent. While we have a lot more resources and knowledge for staying fit, there are a lot of couch potatoes and obese people. These factors all influence what genes will be critical to longevity.
Longevity often runs in families. While some of the longevity might be due to heredity, some is due to similar values and lifestyles. If, for example, the parents and relatives abuse alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or overeat, the children are likely to do the same.
Finally, genetic engineering will enable people to turn genes on or off or insert them. Genetic engineering will yield one breakthrough after another in the first two decades of the new millennium.
Thus 70% or more of your longevity is up to you and the choices you make. The choices are about what you think, what you believe, and the lifestyle you choose.
The Choice
In his last oration, Moses told the Israelites, “I put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life.”16 We have a similar choice:
Passive Aging
Those who choose passive aging don’t give much thought to aging. It just happens. Over the years they add weight, develop health problems, and take medications. They tend to their jobs and responsibilities but do little to feed their minds and spirits. They assume that their aging will resemble aging in their parents’ generation. While they might enjoy their current age, they assume the rest of life is downhill. They are prime candidates for chronic illnesses and nursing homes.
Successful Aging
Full of enthusiasm for life, those who choose successful aging see life as an adventure and steer their own destiny. They are independent and yet well connected to family and friends. They are optimistic and have a good sense of humor. They pursue passions and constantly learn and experience new ideas and activities. They take responsibility for their health and monitor their health. They exercise several times a week for anaerobic, aerobic, and flexibility benefits and find exercise gives them energy, vitality, and confidence. They are fit, healthy, and most don’t take medications other than vitamins and hormonal supplements. They experience aging as giving them a clear sense of who they are and what is important in life–qualities that outweigh any disadvantages of aging. As they age, they become more direct, uninhibited, bold, powerful, generous, happy, and wise.
References
1. Crowley, Susan. (1999, July-August). Live to 100? No thanks, AARP Bulletin, 40, pp. 6, 8. This was a phone survey sponsored for the American Association of Retired Persons and conducted April 9-14, 1999 by Market Facts Inc., McLean, VA.
2. Bannister, Roger. (1989). The four minute mile. New York: Lyons Press.
3. Seligman, Martin. (1991). Learned optimism. New York: Simon & Schuster.
4. Beard, Belle Boone. (1991). Centenarians: The new generation.Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, page 1 of the preface.
5. Vaillant, George. (1977). Adaption to life.Boston: Little Brown.
6. I took the liberty of translating Vaillant’s psychoanalytic terminology into more vernacular terminology.
7. Fiatarone, Maria A., & Garnett, Leah R. (1997, March). Keep on keeping on, Harvard Health Letter, 22, 4.
8. Baruch, Bernard. (1954, April 30). Speech to the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped (originally said by his father, surgeon, Simon Baruch). As cited in Gale’s Quotations.
9. Austad, Steven. (1997). Why we age: What science is discovering about the body’s journey through life. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
10. As cited in Moore, Thomas. (1993). New perspectives on extending human longevity. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 210.
11. Ibid.
12. Perls, Thomas T., & Silver, Margery H. (1999). Living to 100. New York: Basic Books.
13. Ibid.,pp. 146-151.
14. Kolata, Gina. (1996, February 27). New era of robust elderly belies the fears of scientists, New York Times, v. 145, pp. A1, C3.
15. Sorensen, Thorkild, et al. (1988). Genetic and environmental influences on premature death in adult adoptees. New England Journal of Medicine, 318, 727-732.
16. Deuteronomy 30:19.