# The "Old" Old , Wht's Their Secret?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 29, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972 "2007-01-29T15:25:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/1 "2007-01-29T15:25:18Z")
Face it, most of us are pretty decrepit by age 70-and our bodies just start to break down-like having a car with 200,000 miles on the clock. But what about those remarkable people who keep on living into their 90’s? What is special about people who make it to 100-often, in pretty good shape (one old gent in his 90’s was still working as a farmer- hauling bales of feed and driving his tractor). Is it genetic ,or good diet, or taking care of your self in your younger years? (I ask this because look at NFL football players-some of our strongest most agile younf men- afetr they retire, they are a mess (messed up joints, arthritis-very few make it to 70)).
Has anyone found the fountain of youth? Are there any positive steps you can take, to improve your chances for a 100-year lifespan?
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/2 "2007-01-29T15:40:17Z")
The scret is choosing your parents wisely 😉
You can probably find some common attributes among the very long-lived, but a lot of it is just genes. George Burns smoked 10 cigars a day well into his 90’s, and he lived to be 100. Other people die young of cancer, and after you avoid high-risk behavior like smoking, there’s not a lot you can do to stave it off. There’s a lot of talk about heart-healthy diets, and I suppose it’s true that a better diet improves your chances, but as an anecdotal data point my dad had low cholesterol, exercised religiously, but had a triple-bypass in his 70’s.
Some people are just born with immune systems that stay strong, other people don’t survive a heart attack in their 40’s. You can fine-tune it with diet and exercise but you can’t cheat the Grim Reaper.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/3 "2007-01-29T15:45:30Z")
My great-aunt Ivy, who died at 100, said it was simply a matter of being born before all those other people.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/4 "2007-01-29T15:52:42Z")
**Cooking with Gas** has it in one. The only clear common denominator for those who survive healthily well past the modal age-at-death is longevity in parents. (Paging the Ira Howard Foundation! ;))
There are, of course, valuable positives that can be pursued in quest of living longer. Avoiding cholesterol buildup, carcinogens, and free radicals are obvious elements. But for any single “miracle secret for longevity” one can identify someone who did the complete opposite and lived to a ripe old age in good health.
I’d suggest reading up on **gerontology** , the study of aging – but Googling the subject shows a dearth of good websites … so much so that I forebear to link to anything, as the Google results are either program-specific or so generalized that the answers to this thread will probably make it the single best Internet resource on the subject.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/5 "2007-01-29T17:53:59Z")
I read somewhere (how’s that for a cite?) that the three most important factors for longevity are good genes, not smoking, and regular exercize. Avoiding stress was four, and what you eat a lousy fifth.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/6 "2007-01-29T19:04:32Z")
I recently had occasion to link to the Wikipedia article on [Jeanne Calment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment), who lived to be 122 years old. She took up fencing at 85, was still bicycling at 100, and was able to walk until she took a bad fall at 114.
She didn’t quit smoking until she was 117. On the other hand, one of her quotes is, “Wine, I’m in love with that.”
Now, I hate tobacco, and there’s no question that smoking is bad for you. I just mention this to underline the point that “doing everything right” may be neither necessary nor sufficient. Eating right, exercising, avoiding stress, not smoking…all of those are good things, and will help you avoid problems that would kill you sooner. There are other factors, though, some of which we don’t know, and some of which are outside our control anyway–genetics, for one. How about luck, for another?
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### Author:  [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/7 "2007-01-29T19:09:37Z")
My grandmother lived to be 97 with most of her facilities intact. We think she did it by being a bitch. 😛 She was literally one of the nastiest people I’ve ever met.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/8 "2007-01-29T19:16:38Z")
Of course, part of it is just plain luck. When my grampap died at age 88, it was partly due to complications from a car accident he’d been in a few years previous. Had that truck not hit him, he would probably have lasted well into his 90s. And, of course, you get the occasional poor sod who’s struck by lightning at age 30, in which case no amount of genetics or healthy lifestyle will matter.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/9 "2007-01-29T19:35:58Z")
Good health habits will allow you to live as long as your genes and good fortune allow - no longer. Witness Jim Fixx - not overweight, highly conditioned, non-smoker, dead of a heart attack about seven years older than his non-exercising father was when **he** died.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/10 "2007-01-29T19:52:44Z")
This YouTube vid of America’s Oldest Worker may be of interest.
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/11 "2007-01-29T19:57:40Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
Are there any positive steps you can take, to improve your chances for a 100-year lifespan?
[/QUOTE]
If my 94 year old grandfater is any indication, being a miserable old coot is pretty well the ticket. The man has a terrible, sugar rich diet (you should see him put maple syrup on pancakes - they _SWIM_), smoked on and off for the last 70 years, drinks about 4 scotches a day and the Drs can’t find anything wrong with him. He is pretty active - running and walking daily, and swimming a couple of times a week, but just the fact that he can do _THAT_ at 94 is pretty remarkable.
I chalk it up to being a miserable old coot as well as the king of revisionist history. He just chooses to believe whatever he wants to believe and has very little stress as a result. Frankly, I think he’s gonna out live the rest of the family myself included.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/12 "2007-01-29T19:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=Shodan]
Good health habits will allow you to live as long as your genes and good fortune allow - no longer. Witness Jim Fixx - not overweight, highly conditioned, non-smoker, dead of a heart attack about seven years older than his non-exercising father was when **he** died.
Regards,
Shodan
[/QUOTE]
I thought Jim Fixx only started working out in middle age. I was under the impression that Fixx suffered a heart attack because his cardiac muscles, soft all his life as an overweight man, were over-stressed when he became a runner. I was taught that this is the reason you need to train very gradually when getting in shape for the first time - overdo it and you will suffer a heart attack.
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/13 "2007-01-29T20:03:22Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas]
The scret is choosing your parents wisely 😉
[/QUOTE]
Robert Benchley’s receipe for living to be 100 included keeping your parents and grandparents alive, at the point of a pistol if necessary.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/14 "2007-01-29T20:41:30Z")
[QUOTE=Balance]
She didn’t quit smoking until she was 117. On the other hand, one of her quotes is, “Wine, I’m in love with that.”
[/QUOTE]
Hee. My great-Nana lived to be 100 and swore by at least one beer a day.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/15 "2007-01-29T20:53:20Z")
Some say they never smoked or drank and attribute their long life to that. Others do every unhealthy thing you can imagine and live to over 110. I remember one that used to be the Guinness record holder sometime in the 80’s when he was around 113. He smoked and drank firewater everyday. Of course he also walked five miles a day which couldn’t have hurt. (this is from memory, I could be off on details)
I think the advice of choosing your parents wisely is the best as there doesn’t seem to really be any other common factor.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/16 "2007-01-29T21:44:08Z")
Genetics are surely most important. But there are studies suggesting that calorie restriction can dramatically increase lifespan. [Here’s the Wikipedia article on the subject:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction)
> [@](#):
>
> In 1934, Clive McCay and Mary Crowell of Cornell University observed that laboratory rats fed a severely reduced calorie diet while maintaining vital nutrient levels resulted in life spans of up to twice as long as otherwise expected.
>
> …In 1986, Weindruch reported that restricting the calorie intake of laboratory mice proportionally increased their lifespan compared to a group of mice with a normal diet. The calorie-restricted mice also maintained youthful appearances and activity levels longer, and showed delays in age-related diseases. The results of the many experiments by Walford and Weindruch were summarized in their book The Retardation of Aging and Disease by Dietary Restriction (1988)
>
> …The findings have since been accepted, and generalized to a range of other animals. Researchers are investigating the possibility of parallel physiological links in humans…
My grandmother lived to be nearly 108. We have a family history of longevity, but she outdid everyone else. I can tell you anecdotally that there were lots of days when all she would eat would be a sausage biscuit in the morning and a sweet potato in the evening.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/17 "2007-01-29T21:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=gigi]
Hee. My great-Nana lived to be 100 and swore by at least one beer a day.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. If you drink one glass of beer every day for 100 years, I guarantee you will have a very long life 😃
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/18 "2007-01-29T22:17:26Z")
[QUOTE=alice\_in\_wonderland]
… you should see him put maple syrup on pancakes - they _SWIM_ …
[/QUOTE]
😃
I originally read this as “_then_ SWIM”. I was thinking, “well, yeah, he gets his exercise, doesn’t he?”
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/19 "2007-01-29T22:27:22Z")
[QUOTE=bordelond]
😃
I originally read this as “_then_ SWIM”. I was thinking, “well, yeah, he gets his exercise, doesn’t he?”
[/QUOTE]
You know when you go to a pancake type restaruant for breakfast and they have those little containers of different flavours of syrup? I think they hold about a cup of syrup each.
We went, all ordered pancakes - he got the syrup first - it was full when he got it and he emptied it and yelled at the waitress from accross the room that he needed more. Like I said - a coot to the core.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-old-whts-their-secret/389972/20 "2007-01-30T02:45:55Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-]
Genetics are surely most important. But there are studies suggesting that calorie restriction can dramatically increase lifespan.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, free radicals and all. Still I gots to say I think I would rather live only to 70 and enjoy eating everyday.
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
Face it, most of us are pretty decrepit by age 70-and our bodies just start to break down-like having a car with 200,000 miles on the clock.
[/QUOTE]
A lot the the decrepit-ness can be attributed to neglect. It’s arguable whether exercise will add years, less so that it adds quality.
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