Longevity…
This past weekend my grandpa turned 87. I called him to wish him happy birthday and before we were 5 minutes into the conversation, reality hit.
Grandpa’s memory is getting worse.
My grandparents live in the town I was raised in, in Oklahoma and while I don’t see them much my family keeps me updated on how they’re doing and I try and call a few times a month to talk with my Grandpa. (Grandma can’t hear, so we just text.)
This conversation was different though.
Usually Grandpa forgets at least once a conversation that I live in Columbus. This time it was almost every few sentences.
“Are you going to be able to make it to my birthday today?”
“No Grandpa we aren’t, Samantha and I live in Columbus but we sure wish we could.”
“Oh yeah I knew that, well how’s Columbus?”
“It’s going well, city is starting to open back up and things seem a little bit more normal.”
“Well I don’t know if you know but it’s my birthday today and everyone is coming over, will you be coming over with your mom?”
We continued our talk, but after about the 5th time he asked if we were coming I started to get choked up and had to tell him I had to go.
As I drove home I thought to myself would there have been anything that he could have done to help his longevity, his quality of life?
This comes from a completely selfish place. I am extremely lucky to have two living grandparents and many people I know didn’t even grow up with grandparents. Yet I still want my grandparents to live forever and know they obviously can’t.
But is there anything that they could have done to have a longer life, a higher quality of life?
I think they would say no. They grew up in southern Oklahoma as share croppers and now have over 20 grandchildren, a successful business and most of their kids live within 2 hours of them. Overall, I think they are very happy with their life choices and where they are. They’ve lived an extremely long amazing life.
However, the question of, “Is there anything they could have done to extend their quality of life?” still weighed on me, so I did what I always do when I have a question. I turn to the research.
What I found was an exceptional Research Review by MD PhD Robert J. Pignolo.
The link for the review is at the end if you want to dive into it yourself.
A Research Review looks back at research published and organizes it in a condensed form. For this review 189 articles were used that ranged from the years 1980-2018.
Here’s Dr. Pignolo found.
Longevity isn’t simple. Our environment, culture, geographic location and our genes all play an entangled role in the longevity and quality of our life. Dr. Pignolo didn’t find one path to a long high quality life.
What Dr. Pignolo did gather is that individuals that live to 100 or over have some shared habits and other similarities.
They eat in moderation
Regular Exercise; walking and gardening are two of the most common
A strong social support system involving family, friends, and love ones
They have a purposeful life
Spirituality
Maintenance of a healthy body mass
Why do these habits & similarities have an effect on longevity?
Eating in Moderation
Reducing the amount of calories we eat by 20-60% has been shown to slow the process of aging. However, that 20-60% range is a large range and scientist are still trying to determine why. They do know that short term calorie restriction improves markers related to slowing the aging process and in multiple primate studies researchers found that calorie restriction delayed the development of cancer and diabetes.
Regular Exercise
There are many benefits to regular exercise. One of those is by increasing your activity. Increasing your activity by just 20% has been shown to decrease the risk of coronary artery disease in normal weight and overweight middle aged adults. This can be achieved by working out, walking, gardening, swimming, or nearly any other activity.
Increased physical activity is associated with an improved life expectancy and an hour and five minute walk every day has the potential to increase your life expectancy by 4.5 years.
Increased physical activity plays the biggest role in survival and a healthy life in individuals that are 74 years and older.
Strong Social Network
Let’s start with the negative and turn positive.
Lack of strong social relationships is related to an increased mortality risk that is similar to that of smoking. This shocked me.
Now for the positive.
Purpose in life and social engagement is associated with less cognitive function impairment, less disability, and can lead to an improvement in short term memory.
Overall we know what we need to do to live a healthier more fulfilled life. The key is incorporating these habits into our life.
It might not be easy but it will be worth it.