SECRET TO A LONG LIFE?
Always find the bright side
The secret to a longer, healthier and happier life? Always look on the bright side.
That’s true for a gang of socalled “super-agers” — the term for somebody well over 70 who has remained just as sharp, hardworking, active and happy as anyone half their age, even if they maintain their vices.
On Feb. 20, researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago outlined their findings after studying the lives of a group of super-agers for years — including conducting post-mortem examinations on 10 individuals who agreed to have their brains dissected.
Encouragingly, they weren’t all the health puritans you might expect: more than two-thirds of the group smoked, 83 per cent drank regularly.
There was one intriguing link between the case studies.
According to Emily Rogalski, professor of cognitive neurology at Northwestern, a super-ager has a “unique personality profile, highlighting optimism, resilience, and perseverance as well as (an) active lifestyle.”
“A positive mental attitude is absolutely essential, and is probably the most important thing in keeping young,” says Tim Drake, an author and “expert on staying young.”
“You have to be engaged and have a purpose in life. If you have what they call ‘skin in the game,’ you stay connected. You can keep learning and keep growing, or you can start dying. In some ways, it’s as simple as that.”
A sunny disposition is something anyone can focus on and place central to their life, Drake believes. At 73, he says he’d rather spend a mealtime or holiday with his mid-30s daughters and their friends than his septuagenarian peers, for instance, and he refuses to give up work in favour of “traditional” retirement activities.
“I’m working as hard as ever and live off the change, the excitement of other people. I have found that a fifth of all people start aging mentally in their 20s, becoming boring, introspective and angry at change. But, conversely, you can stay young-brained by constantly learning. Retirement — that idea that you sit on a beach or play golf ? I can’t think of anything worse.”
David Attenborough recently confirmed he is to front a new BBC wildlife series later this year, when he will be 92.
And at 96, American designer and entrepreneur Iris Apfel continues to be a fashion icon.
“Getting older ain’t for sissies, I tell you,” Apfel opined two years ago. “You have to push yourself when you are older, because it’s very easy to fall into the trap. I think doing things and being active is very important. When your mind is busy, you don’t hurt so much.”
Molly Parkin, Welsh artist, writer, socialite and professional bon vivant, is in her 86th year and still living alone in London. She no longer drinks or smokes … but is just as sartorially flamboyant. She also follows a vegan diet, and works hard.
“I get up at 4 a.m. for a widdle every day, but I normally just stay up from then. I put a lot of warm clothes on and then go and sit in the garden, waiting for the day to open up. It’s a wonderfully creative time. Then I go in at about seven or eight, have a big bowl of beautiful fruit for breakfast, and perhaps go back to sleep until 10 or 11,” she says. After that, it’ll be an avocado for lunch, while she paints or writes all afternoon and into the night, stopping for a dinner of “two big bags of spinach and some colourful chopped peppers and tomatoes.”
“I have never been more productive or happier in my entire life,” she says, cheerfully. “I’m often solitary, like a lot of people my age, but all my best friends in the area are Welsh or gay or both, and I think that sense of humour, that campiness, suits me very well … I really don’t see the advantages of being young.”
U.K. authors Diana Athill (100 years old) and Edna O’Brien (87) are both still working.
Not everybody is lucky enough to have an artistic flair, but Drake would argue the basic principle remains: stay connected, stay positive, and you won’t even notice your age.
“There are ways of keeping your mental faculties. Socializing is, of course, one, and that can include drinking, since that involves conversation and whatnot. Another is to keep giving — give your time, help a loved one, recharge yourself by thinking of others. And there are the basic things like crosswords and puzzles, which might not be game-changing, but they are certainly good for keeping you mentally fit.”