What It Takes To Live To 100+

More and more people are living to age 100 and more.  A recent study of centenarians revealed some commonalites, and lots of differences.  The first thing I noticed was that on the list of the oldest people in the world, 90% of them were women.  I'm not sure if scientists have studied why this is so, but of the 20 people I read about that were between 115 and 119, 18 of them were women.

These men and women were asked the following question:  "To what do you attribute your longevity?"  Here are some of the answers.  Many spoke of eating an olive oil rich diet, and eating lite meals, nothing too heavy.  Many people talked about stress, and trying to live a stress free life.  Bernice Madigan, a 115 year old American, contributes her longevity to friends and relatives, no children, and no stress.  Christian Mortensen, a 115 year old American, says that friends, a good cigar, no alcohol, lots of water, and singing have kept him alive.  Several people talked about getting a good night's sleep, and many mentioned hard work.

What none of them mentioned was exercise.  Maybe I've got it all wrong.  No one mentioned eating lots of fruits and veggies, although many talked about not eating junk food.  Dina Manfredire, 115 of age from America, said she did and ate everything in moderation.  This has been my mom's saying forever, and she's 91 and going strong.  No one mentioned meditating either.  A few had no idea why they had lived so long and said, "You'll have to ask the good Lord."

Most of the oldest people in the article I read were Americans.  A few were Japanese.  I know that Okinawa is one of the Blue Zones, and they have some of the oldest people in the world living there.  I don't know if every country was considered, but Americans accounted for 75% of the people.

What I took away from the article is that there is no blueprint for longevity.  Eating well, but not too much, working hard, and  keeping stress to a minimum are all important.  After that, it's hard to say.  What I do know is that no one that I read about said anything about exercise or eating organic or vitamin supplements.  Gives me something to think about!