How to Increase Your Chances to Be a Centenarian

So you want to live to one hundred and beyond, and you want to know how to do it. There is no secret formula for getting there, but there are quite a lot of lifestyle prescriptions that give you a better chance. Plus because more people all the time are becoming centenarians our knowledge base of what allows people to live longer is growing. There are things that are becoming more apparent the more we study, and there are things that remain a mystery, which we will explore here.

Many people look at what they envision that life of a centenarian to be, and they think "no thanks". Most people equate aging with aches and pains, loss of memory and loneliness. But we now are observing what life as an aging person really is, and it isn't all that bleak. We now know that the older the age group degenerative disease onset also comes later, and they are quite healthy until very near the end of their lives.

And a human's chances of reaching the 100 year mark are increasing all the time and it is expected will continue to increase. If you are now a baby boomer your chances of hitting 100 years is only about 4%, but children born today have about a 25% chance. About eight out of every nine centenarians are women.
These are some of the things we can do (or have no control over) to reach the century mark:

1. How old was your mother when you were born? According to a study conducted at the University of Chicago Center for Aging, you have twice the chance of reaching 100 years if your mother was under 25 when you were born.

2. Are you a happy and optimistic person? Numerous studies have shown that happy people live longer. We're not exactly sure how, but optimism and other positive thoughts tend to provide stress relief and boost the immune system.

3. How do you cope with stress? Centenarians don't eliminate stress in their lives, but they have learned to deal with it. For the most part they deal with the stress and then quickly put it in their past.

4. Do you watch what you eat and get some exercise? If you are treating your body well by feeding it nutritious foods, eliminating harmful foods and keeping your body active, you increase your chances immensely.

Knowing all the things we can do, it also seems to be true that centenarians seem to have something in their genes that sets them apart from average people. They definitely age slower than normal people. Looking at people who are over 100 years old, studies have shown that when they take a snapshot of what their lives looked like when they were 70 is quite revealing. Over a third was overweight, with 8% falling in the obese category. Over one-third smoked, for an average of 31 years. Less than half exercised moderately, and another twenty percent never exercised. Not exactly what we think of as the ticket for old age, but centenarians are a different breed.

There are many things we can do to help us become healthier and to age better, and exercise is certainly a big part of it. Seniors are now getting more into yoga and other exercises such as Pilates to keep young. Rich Carroll is a writer and avid health advocate now living in Chicago.

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