Would you like to live for 100 years?

By Lionel Aloysius

We call him Liyana-mahattaya. Lean, sturdy and having a healthy life, he is a popular figure around the neighbourhood. He is leading the good life, wholesome life. He says he is 94 years old but to any outsider, he appears as if he is in his late fifties.

“People keep asking me,” he says, “How do you do it? You are an active person. You smoke cigars, take casual drinks, move along with people. What’s your secret?”

His reply is simple. “I walk a lot. Every morning I walk four to five kilometres. That’s the secret. I live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself. When you have lot of time on your hands, like me, you think you’re old. It is a mistake. You’ve got to do something that will get you out of the bed and out of the home. An interest, a hobby, a business or anything. Don’t wait for it to happen; make it happen. For me, life begins every morning when I wake up. The point is, with a positive attitude and a wee bit of luck, there is no reason you can’t live up to 100.”

Life expectancy

Liyana Mahattaya has a valid point. Human beings have dreamed of delaying the ageing process for millennia. From olive leaves in ancient Egypt to the alchemists’ “elixir of life”, vast resources have been spent - and still are today - on tonics, potions and vitamins in the attempt to stave off the ravages of the years.

Now we know the secret. Quietly, without fanfare, we are putting it to work. Life expectancy is increasing in developed and developing nations and shows no sign of slowing. In some countries it has increased by three months a year for the past 100 years.

Where it all will end, you might ask. That is an economist’s question. For those of us alive today who may yet reach 100, there is another question: would we want to live 100 and beyond?

Jonathan Swift understood the question. Gulliver’s Travels features a race of humans, the Struldbrugs, who were normal in all respects except one - they did not die. But their immortality, instead of being a blessing, was a curse, because they continued to age. At 90, Struldbrugs lose their teeth and hair; they have at that age no distinction of taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without relish or appetite.

Diseases

The diseases Struldbrugs were subject to still continue. The question, therefore, was not, whether a man would choose to be always in the prime of youth, attended with prosperity and health; but how he would pass a perpetual life under all the usual disadvantages which old age brings along with it.”

Is there a limit to how long a human can live? Equally important, if it is well above 100, would you want to live that long? Surprisingly, most people do not want to have their life spans extended. The American based Pew Research Centre, based in USA is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

According to a recent survey done by them, 56 percent of adult respondents in the US would not want to undergo medical treatments to slow the ageing process and enable them to live to 100 or longer.

This pessimistic view stems from one important factor. People believe an extended life span will extend frailty and boredom in old age. They also believe that the costs involved are high. The current paradigm in biomedical research, clinical regulation and healthcare has created a spur of costly procedures that provide only marginal increases late in life.

The vast percentage of lifetime healthcare costs today are spent in the last few years of patients’ lives, increasing the burden on the family, economy and society and further contributing to the negative image of life extension.

These fears are the realities virtually all of us have seen in older family members and friends. Until a new way is proven, we still fear ageing the same way that many of our parents and grandparents did, with limited savings, onerous care-giving demands on our children and grandchildren, lonely years alone at home and extended end-of-life care that too often fails to factor in the quality of life.

Blue zones

Searching for solutions for extended lifetime, teams of scientists were making regular visits to five pockets around the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives. The scientists call these places the Blue Zones. These longevity hotspots are in Okinawa (Japan); Sardinia (Italy); Nicoya (Costa Rica); Icaria (Greece); and Loma Linda, California,

How do they do it? Forget fad diets, crazy workouts and syrupy self-help clichés. The world’s longevity all-stars practice simple, common-sense habits as a natural part of their daily routine. We think of these habits as the Power-04:

They move naturally - they walk, they garden

They have the right outlook - take time to downshift, they have a sense of Purpose in their life

They eat wisely - they mostly eat a plant based diet, drink a bit of wine, stop eating when they are 80 percent full

They connect - take care of their families (children and aging parents), they belong to a “tribe” and culture based community

Sound too simple? Remember, simple doesn’t mean easy. Research has shown that if you can sustain a behavioural change for one year, you should be able to sustain it for the rest of your life. This one year, as the world’s centenarians have shown us, will be a long, long time.

No solution

Mankind’s pursuit of longer life expectancy never stops. Today, molecular biologists are making important breakthroughs, and perhaps one day those findings will translate into human applications. For now, even if there were a way to extend human life - and there really isn’t - most of us wouldn’t want it.

Instead, we’d opt for what inevitably awaits us that ultimate grace bestowed upon all humans: the chance to die when our time eventually comes.

There are no examples of anything immortal ever found by science. We should see existence for what it is: composed of as many years as months, of both sweetness and tragedy, of beauty pageants as well as degenerative diseases.

Why prolong it? We’ve all been granted a life’s time. Ephemeral though it may be, that’s all we get. It’s a brief, extraordinary space of time. Let’s make the most of this sojourn while it lasts by being contented, helping others and helping ourselves.