Exceptionally long life is a subject of much study, as we see more people in the world living to age 100 and beyond. According to the Boston University centenarian study, out of a US population of approximately 336,997,624, in 2021, there were 89,739 centenarians (age 100+) or a prevalence of 0.027%.en. What’s their secret? Is it all luck?
What We See In Studies Of Centenarians
We can draw a few conclusions from the BU study that are reflected in other published research on exceptional longevity. One is that women tend to outlive men, not only generally, but particularly as they reach age 100 and beyond. There are theories as to why, but we do not always know for certain. What we see across the world, however, is that the longest lived among us are women.
There are other factors at play, which have also been studied. Genetics is certainly a component of how we age. Longevity does tend to run in families, but lifestyle is consistently identified as a major factor too. The formerly world’s oldest person, María Branyas Morera recently died in Spain at age 117. Because of how rare her longevity was, researchers looked at her life and how she survived for so long. The Washington Post reported that her secret was “avoiding toxic people”. This reflects what other studies show, that stress is a significant factor in predicting longevity. Toxic people create stress.
From Maria Banyas Morera herself, we learn her take on her long life. The Post article above reports this about her understanding of why and how she lived so long: ‘She also cited order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.’
Can We Learn From This Supercentenarian?
We can’t change our genetics but we can certainly emulate Ms. Morera’s choices. How many of us think of order in our lives as a factor affecting how long we’ll live? How many of us think of purposefully avoiding worry and regret as we age? And do we prioritize contact with nature as a way to extend our lifespans? Probably not.
It’s an axiom that optimists live longer than pessimists. And looking at this supercentenarian, we see that she intentionally kept positivity in her life. That’s what optimists do. Another compelling choice which is related to mental health and healthy aging in general is that Ms. Morena maintained good connection with family and friends. We have plenty of data to inform us that social isolation is bad for our health. We can see from her life that she chose the opposite of isolation.
Takeaways
For any senior who wants to live well into old age, we can learn from Maria Banyas Morera, even if we don’t have her remarkable genetic makeup. We do have control over how connected we are to family and friends. A recurring and scary finding we see in our consulting work with families at AgingParents.com is that widowed agers who live alone sometimes have no friends. Some have little to no contact with family members, either because of long standing estrangement, outliving siblings and offspring, or not having children. They are some of the most socially isolated people we encounter. Their lawyers, financial managers or sometimes an adult child who is concerned, but not in any way close to the elder, bring them to our attention when a crisis of some kind emerges. May that not be you!
If you take only one thing from this piece, let it be that is it our own personal task and responsibility to create and maintain close connections to other people. If our family of origin is not the resource, we can create a sense of family with others by extending ourselves to join things, make friends, participate and otherwise connect. And may that be a factor in our own healthy aging.