The Secrets of the Centenarians: How to Live to 100!

When Helen Boardman was still a girlish 99, she fell in love again–with a

younger man.

“I robbed the cradle,” laughs the trim centenarian, who married a man

twenty years her junior for “companionship,” she says slyly. “Bill was

lonesome—I wasn’t!–but I enjoyed his company and we had the same

interests. So we fell in love.”

It didn’t hurt that Bill Boardman had the same last name.

“That was a coincidence,”adds Bill. “She kept getting my checks, I got her

bills, so out of necessity, we had to get married!”

Nowadays, the twosome often perform together in plays at Friendship

Village, an independent living facility outside of Chicago where they share a

one-bedroom apartment. Helen writes, directs, and stars in the productions.

“I don’t get nervous…I’m over all that,” she shrugs nonchalantly.

She’s 107. He’s 86.

Still romance after eight years? “A little,” Helen laughs, “when he’s real nice

to me, which is most of the time. He’s a good guy.”

“To be perfectly frank, ” notes Bill, “Helen doesn’t seem 20 years older at

all. She’s never acted like an old lady. Last New Year’s Eve, we stayed up until

midnight dancing. I think she’s maintained her youth quite well!”

Indeed, decked out in pearls and a smart black-and-white checkerboard

dress, nestled into a couch in her living room, the woman born in June, l896,

says: “I feel young inside…I’d say about 60.” She doesn’t even dye her still-

auburn hair. “My mother and father didn’t go gray either,” she says with pride.

” I guess I’m drinking from the Fountain of Youth.”

“Sometimes,” she adds, miffed by those around her in their 80’s and 90’s

who complain about their health, “I feel like a teenager in an old folk’s home!”

An avid reader, book reviewer, and world traveler, with 12 trips to Europe

under her belt, Helen also recites poetry, gardens, flower arranges, and lifts

weights daily!

“Just one or two or pounds each arm,” she demurs of her bicep curls.

Her secret of longevity? “Strawberry shortcake!” she smiles sweetly. “One

big piece, every day.”

* * * * *

The Centenarian Jackpot

The remarkable Helen Boardman is not alone. In the U.S. today, there are

more than 50,000 centenarians, the nation’s fastest growing age group.

Although the current life expectancy for the average American is 76.9 years, by

the year 2050 there will be an estimated one million people living to 100.

That’s substantial progress. In 1900, the average life span extended to age 47.

In 1800, it was a mere 30 years-old.

“The secret to reaching 100 nowadays is a combination of genetics,

lifestyle choices, mental acuity, and just plain luck!” notes Thomas T. Perls,

M.D., author of Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at

Any Age (Basic Books).

This landmark book, written with Margery Hutter Silver, Ed.D. is based on

the ongoing New England Centenarian Study, begun in l994, which reveals that

old age can be filled with lucidity, mobility, and good health.1

“Of the 1,500 centenarians in our study,” says Perls, “a great majority

were in terrific shape the vast majority of their lives. Rather than accumulating

damage, they’re actually shedding it.”

How so? “Most people believe the older you get, the sicker you get, a very

pessimistic point of view. The centenarians we’ve met demonstrate the

opposite: the older they get, the healthier they’ve been. I call them centenarian

jackpots. From a medical standpoint, they’ve been able to markedly delay or

altogether escape diseases that we normally associate with aging–like heart

disease, cancer, stroke, or Alzheimer’s.

“I haven’t had anything,” notes Helen Boardman. No diseases. No

medications. “I take an aspirin occasionally,” she admits, for hip pain.

“Freed from any major illness,” says Dr. Perls, “many centenarians like

Helen are cooking their own meals, balancing checkbooks, driving their own

cars, lifting weights, playing bridge, and reading novels, and socializing with

family and friends.

Some are even competing in the Senior Olympics. Take, for example,

another remarkable centenarian, Marguerite Kuekelhan, born in August l897.

At age 105, she’s the world record holder (in her age class) for shotput! Last

July, at the Washington State Senior Games in Olympia, the 97-pound athlete

could be seen hurling a 6 1/2 pound metal ball 6 feet into the air

Her secret? “I think it’s the spirit within you,” she says crisply. Being 90 or

100 is no excuse for inactivity? “Heavens no! I try not to let age keep me down

at all.

This year I’m trying to break my record and make it better,” says 4-foot 10

inch dynamo, who hopes to beat her best practice throw at 7’6″.

Is all this fun? “No,” she groans. “The ball is very heavy; I’d rather bounce a

rubber ball.” In fact, she recently played exhibition basketball against the

Seattle Supersonics, warning the crowd: “Before I get started, I haven’t

dribbled in about 100 years!”

That’s for sure. A widow after 55 years of marriage, Marguerite lives alone

in a tidy apartment in an independent living facility in Olympia, does her own

cooking and cleaning, always uses the stairs, and does her leg and ankle

exercises each morning to maintain strength and balance for the shotput.

“And I still drive,” she says with pride, “though I’m giving that up when I

turn 106 this August. I just feel as if my reactions are not as quick as they

used to be. But I still see very very well and I hear well too–though I had to

get one of those things! [a hearing aid].

* * * * *

Genetic Booster Rockets

What in the world is going on here? A woman getting married at 99 and

starring in plays? Another shotputting and dribbling a basketball? What

Fountain are they drinking from?

“These centenarians,” notes Dr. Perls, “are blessed with what I call ‘genetic

booster rockets’, a built-in biological advantage which boosts them above the

norm. Anyone living to extreme old age has this genetic edge. They were

endowed with the ‘Rolls Royces’ of genes, what scientists call ‘super genes,”

which act as longevity insurance. These genes slow down aging and reduce the

risk of contracting diseases. Centenarians in our study who lived to 105 usually

died of pneumonia, or even a household accident–having never developed any

chronic disease of aging. For sure, extreme old age runs in families.”

Both Helen and Marguerite’s parents lived into their 80’s, with close

relatives of both topping 102.

Even with average genes, however, it’s possible to extend longevity more

than ever before, says Dr. Perls: “Not long ago, 85 was considered ancient.

Now it’s relatively easy to achieve that age if you play your cards right. It all

boils down to four simple things: not smoking, maintaining a healthy diet,

strength training, and avoiding excessive sun exposure and alcohol. Those are

the biggies.”

One such example is the nation’s oldest man, 113-year-old Fred Hale, born

in New Sharon, Maine on December 1, l890, when Benjamin Harrison was

President.

Up until age 107, the retired railway clerk lived alone in a three-story

farmhouse in Maine, traipsing up and down stairs, shoveling snow off the roof,

chopping wood, hunting, fishing, mowing grass, gardening, and beekeeping–

producing his own honey and bee pollen, a lifelong passion.

He was still driving his own car, making him the oldest American ever to

hold a driver’s license according to the Guinness Book of Records.

At 113, Hale is in a special class unto himself, considered a “super-

centenarian,” defined as anyone living 110 or longer. There is one super-

centenarian per million in the population, a total of 260 in the U.S. today. “We

don’t yet know what sets these people apart,” says Dr. Perls. “They have no

major illnesses, and even their hearing and vision don’t usually deteriorate

until their late 90’s.”

Hale, both of whose parents lived to 91, has, in recent years, beat

pneumonia and hip replacement and had cataract surgery. “No diseases, no

nothing,” he exclaims, “except for some arthritis,” which is cured, he believes,

with a teaspoon of bee pollen taken with each meal.

Although a few falls eventually forced him into the Syracuse Home, a

retirement community in Syracuse, N.Y., he continued using a walker until age

112, hiking half a mile a day. His mental acuity and lively sense of humor

remain undimmed.

How did he survive so long? “Oh, I don’t know, punishment, I guess!” he

jokes.

When reflecting on it, he credits his longevity to a good diet, lots of rest (up

at 6 a.m., to bed at 8 p.m.) never smoking, and keeping busy.

“The secret is work,” he declares. “Don’t sit around. Keep a good attitude. I

always loved to work. When I went home, I got five hours sleep, and then went

to work in my garden. I can still stoop down and pick up a handkerchief better

than most of them!”

* * * * *

Use It Or Lose It

Until Fred Hale was 111, he studied the Reader’s Digest ‘Word Power’

vocabulary exercise religiously, testing himself on new words weekly. His work

ethic and mental curiosity point to another key ingredient in the longevity

marathon: exercising the brain.

“It’s definitely use it or lose it,” says Dr. Perls. “The key to mental vigor is

continually learning something new, which builds fresh connections between

brain cells.

“For instance, crossword puzzles (verbal functions), bridge (memory

functions) and intricate jigsaw puzzles (visual-spatial functions) all keep the

mind sharp. Equally beneficial is painting,writing poetry, making sculpture, or

learning a new language. We’ve also found that music is a powerful vaccine

against dementia and the onset of brain disease. I knew a 102-year-old who

was never in her room at the nursing home because she was too busy playing

Mozart and Chopin recitals in the music room! Doing any of these things

allows you to maintain attention and memory, and the ability to plan, organize,

and exercise self-care.

“I think the mind has a lot to do with the way you feel,” says Helen

Boardman, until recently a voracious reader who spent a lifetime writing book

reviews for libraries and turning biographies into plays. Two years ago, she

even completed her memoirs, titled: “105 and Counting,” before her vision

began to fail.

“Staying home and watching TV was never my pleasure at all,” says Helen,

who does tune into C-Span for the book reviews. She believes the secret of

longevity is: “Curiosity. I love to see the world and I love people. Everybody has

some good in them. If you’re curious about things, you’ll search them out.”

She marvels at the technological miracles spread over the three centuries

which her lifetime has spanned, yet she recounts, with equal pleasure, her days

in a horse and buggy: “I drove to high school every day in my buggy. Maudie

was a retired beige race horse and I loved her! When we got our first

automobile, she was put out to pasture. We accepted the car right away, sure–

but isn’t a horse more fun?”

Fun counts in Helen’s world. She even tried white-water rafting at 90: “The

ticket seller said that the only requirement was that you had to be at least eight

years old. I told myself: ‘If an 8-year-old can do it, I can!” * * * * *

“Good Training” and The Centenarian Personality

Although many may wonder if diet has much to do with the remarkable

health of centenarians, “it’s impossible to know because dietary habits have

changed so dramatically over the years,” says Dr. Perls. Most processed foods

did not exist during the centenarians’ formative years; preserving was done by

pickling, smoking, and salting; and fresh fruit was less available. “Some ate

very little red meat, others ate it every day with bacon and eggs!–and both

types lived to 100.” Nowadays, however, there’s little doubt, says Perls, that

“good training,” — exercise and proper diet–contribute mightily to living to

100.

“The secret of living a long life is lifestyle as much as anything,” thinks

Helen Boardman. “I’ve always taken exercise, I don’t go for liquor, and I never

smoked.

“I’m not fond of red meat at all,” she continues. “I prefer vegetables, fruit,

chicken and fish. And when I’m not feeling too well, I have oatmeal. Growing

up on the family farm, we always had it in the morning, and I still love it!”

Chocolate cake? “Unacceptable but delicious!” she laughs.

Fred Hale, at 113, also eats moderately and drinks no coffee or tea. His

diet? “I eat off my fork just the same as everybody else!” he teases.

“I always eat rolled oats with honey for breakfast,” he explains. “Lunch is

meat and potatoes. And at night, I eat very light–cottage cheese, apple sauce

and toast. That’s it.”

Athletic competitor Marguerite eats “very light, which is easier on the

stomach,” principally vegetables and fruits: “And I don’t use any milk

products. I like soy milk instead. It seems to be easier to digest.” No desserts,

she says. Such virtue! “Well, look what the result is!”

Beyond genetics, lifestyle, and mental acuity, there is another profound, yet

intangible, factor that influences anyone’s ability to live to 100. Dr. Perls refers

to it as the ‘centenarian personality’–a stress-reducing mindset that combines

positive thinking with a fighting spirit.

“Inevitably, most centenarians are upbeat, funny,and gregarious,” he

observes: “It’s very rare I meet a curmudgeon centenarian! They’re not

complainers. In our personality testing, they score very low in ‘neuroticism,’ the

expression of negative emotions like fear, anxiety, guilt, anger, or depression.

They’re positive and optimistic in their attitude and bounce back easily from

life’s crises because they don’t internalize thoughts or emotions that cause

stress.”

“I believe in positive thinking,” booms the athletic Marguerite, a founding

and lifelong member of Unity Church in Olympia. “Mental attitude,” says

Marguerite, who meditates daily to take herself into “a quiet place” is

exceedingly important. “I was always trying throughout my life to be positive,

but I didn’t get to the peak until now….it was a matter of growth.”

Her close friend and shotput promoter, John Vlastelia, the president of the

Washington State Senior Games, adds this: “When Marguerite reads in the

newspaper that ‘Flu season in full bloom,’ she always says ‘I am not going to

get sick,’ and literally wills herself to good health.”

“We know,” says Dr. Perls, “that stress–internalizing depression, anger,

worry, fear–is an age accelerator. We’ve found that centenarians are able to

shake stress off their backs like a duck shakes off water. Many have

experienced great losses and hardships in their lives, yet they’d been able to

recover quickly and move on.”

* * * * *

A Realistic View of Death

Perhaps some of these centenarians will reach even the grand old age

achieved by Mme.

Jeanne Calment, the oldest living person in recorded history, who died in l997,

at age 122.

“The chances of living to 122,” says Dr. Perls, “is 1 in 6 billion. Although I

think the human life span could be eventually expanded into the 130’s, for

most of us, reaching ages 100-105 is a reasonable number to hope for.”

Centenarians like Helen, Marguerite, and Fred, thriving in the present as

they do, think very little about their limited futures.

“Death is something that is coming,” says Marguerite matter-of-factly,

priming for competition this July at the shotput: “I accept it as part of my

experience in life, but I don’t think about it at all.”

As for Fred Hale, every time his physical therapist says ‘see you tomorrow,’

the 113-year-old answers: “Perhaps! I’m not making long-term plans!”

His attitude toward death? “What took you so long!” he quips merrily.

Then, on a serious note, he adds: “Can’t do anything about it. Why be afraid?”

This attitude is typical, says Dr. Perls: “I haven’t met any centenarian who

feared death. If anything, they’re very thankful for every day they have and they

just hope for more.”

As for Helen, “sometimes,” she smiles, “I get so sleepy. Anytime I sit down, I

just close my eyes. My daughter was talking about death the other day and said

she can’t wait to find out what happens. Well, I feel pretty much the same way.

I have no fear of death. It’s just another phase when we’re finished with our

work. I’m content to stop anytime now.”

But she brightens at the thought of her younger husband, Bill:

“He’s my incentive!” she says merrily. “My children are all

independent…they don’t need me. Bill does. He needs someone to boss him! I

look forward to what is yet to come.”

All in all, is being 107 a blessing or burden?

“Both,” she answers calmly. “It’s a burden because I was a voracious reader

until I became nearly blind. So I’ve lost the thing that I enjoyed the most,

though I can listen to books on tape. But it’s a blessing because of the things I

still can do. Here’s my poem: “My hearing and vision–neither one are very

good; and I sometimes stumble when I walk; but when you ask me any

question about my life, I sure am glad I still can talk!”

“So I’m an OPTIMIST,” she declares in parting, “grateful for everything. Every

day. At dinner, every bite is exciting because I never know what I’m going to

eat. The cup is always full. I have never been in want. Everything is good.

Nothing bad.

“After reading my memoirs,” she smiles, “my nephew asked me if there

was anything bad in my life, and I said: ‘If there was, I forgot it!”

* * * * *

Side-Bar RX

In a culture obsessed by youth, “people have got to realize,” says Dr. Perls,

“that your 70’s and 80’s can be the most fantastic time of your life. I see

people go after second or third careers, or volunteer activities, enhance

relationships with their families, while their experience and wisdom is at their

peaks. Life is their oyster. And it still can be at 100!”

Here are a few health secrets for anyone on the road to 100, a prescription

from Dr. Perls, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston School of Medicine, and

geriatrician at Boston Medical Center.

Age accelerators to avoid: smoking, sun exposure, excessive alcohol , high-

fat diet, ionizing radiation, toxic chemicals, excessive risk-taking, and mental

stress. Make fitness, laughter, and relaxing recreation a priority in your life!

Age de-accelerators: Exercise (weight training, aerobics, meditation, yoga); a

diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, with a minimum of meats and

sweets, processed foods, and animal fat or butter.

Supplements: To prevent arteriosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s

Parkinson’s, vision problems, cancers, and rheumatoid arthritis, I recommend

taking:

*Vitamin E [400-800 IU per day] to prevent and delay cognitive

deterioration;

*Vitamin B complex (with folate)

*Calcium with Vitamin D (to decrease the risk of osteoporosis)

*Omega Fatty Acids #3 and #6 (derived from flax seed oil or fish oil,

availablein capsules, 1,000 mg daily]

*Selenium [100-200 mcg per day].

*Baby aspirin (81 mg) each day which reduces the risk of heart attack by 50%.

*Green tea–noted by the Chinese culture for 3000 years as a health

booster.

Author’s note: Since these interviews were conducted, Fred Hale, documented

as the world’s oldest man, died at age 113 on November 20, 2004. He was

physically active and mentally alert right up until the end says his son, an

octegenarian.

Source by Glenn Plaskin