Live to 100: How to hit the century mark.

Centenarians more common

VANCOUVER — Anyone who thinks an active mind is key to a long, happy life will be buoyed by a chat with 105-year-old Alice Okerstrom.

“I’m on the computer all the time,” she says with infectious cheer while sitting in the garden of her seniors’ apartment in Coquitlam. “Today I looked up the difference between prawns and shrimp after someone asked about it at dinner.”

It has to do with the structure of their gills and thorax, she recalls, adding a fascinating detail she discovered: some crustacean species begin life as males but turn to females midway through.

She also goes online to follow the itinerary of her son, grandson and their families as they tour Europe this summer, looking up the sights they’re seeing for a vicarious vacation of her own.

Okerstrom took up computer skills late in life — 94 to be precise — following the death of her husband of 60 years and a move from their home in Victoria. Her son, now 69, insisted that she learn how to use one. She already knew how to type (and still remembers how to take shorthand) from her years working as a stenographer and bookkeeper.

“He thought I would be interested — and I was.”

Okerstrom is part of a growing cohort of centenarians that Statistics Canada tallied at 5,825 last year, 84 per cent of whom are women. That marks an increase of about 2,000 since 2001, and the number is expected to reach 78,300 by 2061 boosted by the baby boom generation.

They make up the secondfastest-growing age group in Canada after 60- to 64-yearolds. The reasons behind the numbers range from a higher population in general; improved public health in the early 20th century, which allowed more children to survive childhood; and medical advancements like early cancer treatments, life-saving surgery and the now-routine survival of once-deadly infections through antibiotics. We’re witnessing a change that was unthinkable when Okerstrom was born in England in 1908 — a time when North American life expectancy hovered around the half-century mark.

DIET MATTERS

The Mediterranean diet has been proven to be very healthy, according to Simon Fraser University gerontologist Andrew Wister. Several studies have found that the nutritional profile of the Mediterranean diet is a major determinant of successful aging. A diet rich in complex carbohydrates from legumes and whole grains, fibre and antioxidants from fruits and vegetables and essential fatty acids from olive oil, fish and nuts appears to extend life. Supplements do not appear to confer the same benefit as eating a diet rich in these essential elements.

PHYS ICAL ACTIVITY

Men living in the steep mountainous region of Sardinia have the longest average lifespan in the world, according to an analysis by Italian researchers published in Science Direct. They concluded that men who exerted the most energy walking to work and performing pastoral work such as shepherding appeared to extend their lives. A 17-year study of nearly 16,000 twins in Finland found that people who performed regular vigorous exercise reduced their risk of death by 55 per cent compared to their sedentary twins. A large analysis of several dozen studies published by German researchers in the Journal of Aging last year concluded that regular physical activity reduces the risk of death from all causes by as much as 35 per cent and that physically active people could extend their lives by up to seven years. Physical activity during leisure time appeared to confer a greater benefit than having a physically demanding job. An Italian study published last year by the journal Maturitas found that elderly people (average age 80 years) who walked outdoors four times a week lowered their risk of death by 40 per cent compared to their sedentary peers.

CHERI S H FRIENDS & FAMILY

Reliable friends and loving family are tricky to measure, but social connectedness appears to be a common factor for the world’s longest living citizens in Sardinia, Okinawa and the Seventh-day Adventist community in Loma Linda, California. According to Wister: “In Loma Linda, they have a tight-knit religious community, in Sardinia they are very family oriented and the same is true in Okinawa, where the elders are held in very high regard.” All three cities are so-called Blue Zones, where the number of centenarians is about ten times the Canadian average of 17.4 per 100,000. The early returns on the science of loneliness are profound. An eight-year study of 6,500 people published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who are socially isolated have an increased risk of death, regardless of underlying health issues. University of Chicago social neuroscientist John Cacioppo has found that social isolation can precipitate a decline in immune function and even negatively affect the expression of the genes associated with inflammatory disease.

KEEPS LIM, BUT NOT TOO SLIM

The number of Canadians who are obese is around 25 per cent of the population. In Japan the rate is less than four per cent, likely due to a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and brown rice — the Asian equivalent of the Mediterranean diet. Japan also has the world’s highest life expectancy at 83, despite an astronomically high smoking rate. The list of potentially life-threatening ailments and conditions associated with obesity is long and sobering: High blood pressure is six times as common in obese people, diabetes up to 20 times as common. According to a 2007 meta-analysis in the Archives of Internal Medicine, obesity increases the risk of heart disease by 81 per cent. However, two studies found that being overweight, but not obese, conferred a moderate protective effect on elderly people while being underweight slightly increased the risk of death. The researchers suggested that people 70 and older should guard against sudden weight loss.

AVOID SMOKING, DRINK ( A LITTLE) RED WINE

Smoking is just plain bad for you. About 37,000 Canadians die each year due to smoking related illness, more than obesity, sloth or hypertension. More than HIV, illegal drugs, alcohol, car accidents, suicides and murder all combined, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The impact of alcohol on longevity is a more challenging question. Moderate alcohol consumption may reduce heart disease, according to studies published in the British Medical Journal. The equivalent of three glasses of wine a day increased HDL (good) cholesterol and led researchers to conclude the dosage could result in a 25 per cent decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease. Other studies suggest one or perhaps two glasses might be a better option. De-alcoholized wine lowered blood pressure in subjects in one Spanish study. But many other studies have linked alcohol consumption to heart disease, cancer, liver disease and diabetes. Binge drinking — consuming five or more drinks in one sitting — raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and is “neurotoxic,” according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

HAVE A POS I TIVE ATTITUDE

“We overlook the power of a positive attitude, but when you talk to centenarians they will tell you they have a joie de vivre, a certain attitude that keeps them going,” said Wister. A study of American veterans over 61 years of age by researchers at Harvard and Boston University published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that an optimistic attitude conferred measurable protection against coronary heart disease in men. A widely cited 40-year study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found pessimists had a 42 per cent higher death rate than the most optimistic subjects. “It helps to be fortunate enough to live in a community with strong support, to have some resources to live a decent lifestyle and maximize your happiness through some leisure activities that you like,” Wister said.