Centenarians on why they lived so long
If you live to be over 100 I guess you get to opine about how you think you managed to do it. But that doesn’t mean you really have a clue.
My extremely strong hunch is that these stalwarts lived to be over 100 because they lived to be over 100. And that probably happened because they were favored with fantastic genes for longevity, and had the good fortune to not be met with serious accidents or foul play. The rest of it is probably blather, although it makes for very entertaining reading:
Pearl Cantrell, 105, attributes her long and healthy life to bacon. “I love bacon, I eat it everyday”…
Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122…gives credit to olive oil, which she poured on her food and used on her skin, drinking port wine, and eating about two pounds of chocolate every week. “I’ve never had but one wrinkle,” she used to tell her friends, “and I’m sitting on it.”…
Vivian Henschke, 109, smoked for most of her life, had two cocktails before dinner nearly every night, and ate whatever she wanted, according to her daughter, Karen Preston. “Mother did nothing by today’s standards to help her have great longevity,” Preston told Everydayhealth.com, adding that Henschke also “never exercised a day in her life.”
Read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you did—although it probably won’t add a day to your longevity.
I once knew an older fellow in Germany, probably in his mid-80s back then. I asked him his secret to long life, and he replied, “Schnapps. I drink a bottle every day”. Every day?, I asked, incredulous. “Ja”, he answered, “but I drink it all day long”. Ah, so that’s the key: never allow any blood into your alcohol system.
Bacon, port, smoking, and cocktails! Time to update that food pyramid.
The common denominator seems to be a positive emotional state (content, happy, in control, purposeful) with a strong ability to defeat stress.
But doesn’t this beg the question “Would you even WANT to live to 100?” Growing old isn’t for wimps and I must be one. No way do I want to live that long.
My maternal grandmother lived to be 100. She was very tightly wound, emotionally. Never a day went by without her worrying or fretting about any number of things. She was overweight, did little exercise beyond housework, ate few vegetables or fruits, but was neither a smoker or drinker. I think it was the worrying that kept her going. Or something.
No way I’m gonna read about what statistical deviants attribute their deviancy to. A fool’s game.
Lurch: what if God grants you your wish sooner rather than later? It happens. At what age and in what condition do you wish to leave this life? Suddenly, without notice, or of a slow process? At age 59, 69. or 79? Reflect on the fact that you get to choose the timing and means of exit only via suicide.
Don’t be too stuck on three score and ten…that was in 1865.
At the Store Where I Work, we have a considerable Vitamins/Health Supplements section. The range of dietary products is mindboggling, truly. And the customers who haunt that section are frankly depressing. They are so convinced that if they just take the right array of pills, powders and extracts, they’ll somehow overcome any possible ailment and live longer.
I feel sorry for them. They’d be better off taking a clue from those centenarians whose common theme seems to be expressed by Lila Denmark, “You keep on doing what you do best as long as you can,” and Iriving Kahn, “I don’t worry about dying.”
George Pal Says:
May 10th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
The science is settled.
And this never gets old.