What is the Secret to Longevity?
Longevity has always been a personal interest for me, ever since I first heard my Grandma say that she wanted to live to be 100 years old. Well, the good news is that she made it to a ripe old age of 101 years old, and even received a letter of congratulations from the Queen!
I know that for my Grandma, and many other people, setting the intention to enjoy a long life was an important part of achieving that goal. I remember even as a youngster thinking that I would like to live to be 100 also, so I have set that as a goal for myself. I always thought that because I had relatives who seemed to have the secret to longevity, that it must be in the genes. I have always been optimistic that I also have good genes for longevity, but is this really the case?
Longevity Studies
Due to my personal interest in living a long healthy life, I have always read stories about people who have lived a long life. Indeed, we often hear from the Guinness Book of Records who is the current oldest living person, or what is the record for longevity for a human being. But what is more interesting is the way that some special communities around the world seem to have a higher percentage of long lived people. And it is true that there seems to be clusters of long lived people in families, or certain communities.
Does Longevity depend on good genes?
But you might be surprised to know that longevity does not necessarily depend on the genes you were born with. Lifestyle plays a significant role, and this is where it becomes interesting. Especially for scientists who like to do research into longevity, because they always like to find out the reason for these things!
Longevity Research
So this is where science get interesting, and this is where scientists tend to focus more research – especially in those special communities with larger proportions of centenarians. Interestingly, there are pockets of extremely long lived people scattered around in different parts of the world. These longevity hot spots are known as “The Blue Zones”.
Where are the Blue Zones of Longevity?
The Blue Zones include places like Nicoya in Costa Rica, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, and especially on the island of Okinawa in Japan. These hot spots for longevity have a significantly higher number of centenarians per head of population that other parts of the world. And no, it is not just because all the younger people left! These people are happily, healthily and successfully living full and active lives, well into their 90’s, and even beyond 100 years of age!
How do they live longer?
What is the secret to living a long and happy life – the secret to longevity? After all, the first question we hear at the birthday party for a 100 year old is – “what is the secret to living to be 100 years old?”
And guess what the answer is – Nothing!! It is never the same. One old person says “I never smoked in my life”, but another one does. One person says “I never drank a drop in my life”, but someone else says “I always have a glass of sherry each day”. One person says “I have good genes, all my family lived to a ripe old age”, but the next person says “I don’t know what the secret is, I am the only one in the family still alive!” So the only conclusion that can be drawn from the studies is that old age is not necessarily in our genes, nor is there one single diet which is best, nor one single lifestyle habit.
So, what is the secret to Longevity?
As the scientists have discovered, there is no single secret to a happy and long life, but there are several clues. Researchers are naturally able to focus in on areas where there are significant numbers of people living beyond the standard life expectancy. The significant aspect about these people with wonderful longevity is that they are living much longer with wonderful good health. Not only good health, but also with happiness, fulfillment and contentment! The important thing about the research is that living a healthy lifestyle is a good model for us all.
What are the tricks to living longer, happier and healthier?
You might be surprised to learn that one of the keys to longevity, and something that each of the Blue Zone Communities had in common is social connectivity. Each of these communities have a culture of support for the elderly, but not in the way the western societies deal with old age. Rather these communities celebrate old age, and encourage the ongoing participation of older people in the community.
Longevity is Amazing
Most of us dream about retiring with lots of spare time and lots of spare money! But this can be a recipe for problems later in life! In actual fact, the secret to a long and happy old age is actually not about retiring to an armchair. But more about finding work that we love to get involved, and actually continuing to make a contribution, doing something we love to do!
