Currently, one in 5,000 people in the U.S. are centenarians, or people over 100, according to Dr. Thomas Perls, professor of medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and director of the university’s New England Centennial Study. The study, which is the largest and most in-depth of its kind, has followed more than 2,000 people aged 100 and over since 1995 to determine whether certain factors contribute to longer life spans. Perls also created a life expectancy calculator that generates an estimated age you might live, based on answers to questions about how often you work, how often you visit your doctor, your sleep habits, and more. “If you make it to 95, you usually do that because of very good health behaviors,” Perls says, as well as benefiting from good luck and good genes.
5 Daily Practices to Increase Your Chances of Living to 90
Through another study that tracked the behaviors of followers of a religious group, Seventh-day Adventists, researchers were able to narrow down the most important daily longevity practices to these five. On average, followers of the religion tended to live between 86 and 90 years, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The only common theme was that they all strictly followed the five behaviors listed above.
“The older you get the healthier you were”
During the research, Perls noticed that many people had reservations about longevity, which prevented them from seeing the value of maintaining healthy behaviors. “Some people think that the older you get, the sicker you get and that they wouldn’t want to live to that age. And that’s actually very wrong thinking,” he says. In fact, he says, “the older you got, the healthier you were.” Perls has had the opportunity to meet many centenarians, and some of them even lead very active lives, he told BU Today, a Boston University publication. “One lady I remember, Celia, was 102 years old and I was never around to visit her in this independent living community,” Perls said during the BU Today podcast. “I thought maybe she was out to see her doctors or something. But no, he played piano at all kinds of concerts and very complicated Chopin.’
“Women are winning the longevity marathon”
Genetics also play an important role in all of this. Only “about 75 percent of living to about 90 will be your health-related behaviors,” Perls says. But at age 110, it flips and longevity is more about genetics. When researchers analyzed 200 people aged 110 and over, they found that about 75% of the ability to live that long was based on the right combination of rare genetic variants. There is also a strong gender component, with about nine out of 10 centenarians being women. “Women win the longevity marathon by a lot compared to men. It’s not at all clear why women do so much better in reaching these more extreme ages,” says Perls. If you’re interested in estimating how long you could live, you can check out Perls’ life expectancy calculator. Upon completion, you will receive a life expectancy calculation from your answers and a detailed breakdown of how you can increase your lifespan by changing your behaviors. Want to earn more and work less? Register for the free CNBC Make It: Your Money virtual event on December 13 at 12 p.m. ET to learn from money gurus like Kevin O’Leary how you can increase your profitability. Subscribe Now: Get smarter about your money and your career with our weekly newsletter
