Making it to 100

The Centenarian Playbook Issue #2: How much of it is in your control?

Welcome to my newsletter themed at the intersection of longevity and wine history. 🍷

Grandma Kay at her Centennial Birthday in 2021

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As Grandma Kay Gemello approached her 100th birthday in 2021, she hit the radar at the New England Centenarian Study.

A staff member had stumbled upon an online article in Grandma Kay’s local newspaper about a novel way she planned to celebrate her centennial birthday: by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the San Francisco Giants game. (Pandemic conditions that summer unfortunately made the event tricky, so she kicked off the A’s-Giants Bay Bridge game in an even more creative way. Watch the video).

For 29 years, the New England Centenarian Study has been analyzing why some people make it to 100, while most don’t. The study is conducted out of the Boston University Medical Center. It’s one of the nation’s largest studies of centenarians with more than 3,000 participants.

To join the study, Grandma Kay participated in a series of phone interviews, questionnaires and submitted blood samples. Then researchers began analyzing and comparing her genes with other centenarians in the study. Grandma Kay is three months away from her 103rd birthday.

While some people see living to 100 as a goal to shoot for, Grandma Kay throughout her nineties, frequently said that wasn’t hers, despite being encouraged by several family members.

But what has made it possible has been her ability to slow the aging process, by dodging age-related diseases, like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer. Heart disease is another common age-related disease, but she hasn’t so much dodged it, but rather side-stepped it or at least managed it with the aid of a pacemaker and some medication.

Dr. Tom Perls, founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study, says the ability to slow the aging process is a key factor among people who make it into their nineties and beyond.

Study Key Takeaways

I interviewed Dr. Perls last year. Here are three key longevity takeaways from part of the interview.

1. What’s unique about not just centenarians but most people who make it into their nineties? 

“It’s their ability to slow the aging process by avoiding age-related diseases,” Perls said. “To get to the age of 90, about 75% is driven by healthy behaviors. The other 25% is genetics. 

“To get to the age of 90, about 75% is driven by healthy behaviors. The other 25% is genetics,” Perls said.

“When talking about getting to 100, a person’s longevity is slightly less dependent on healthy behaviors,” he added. “It’s about 60% healthy behaviors, while genetics influences about 40%.”

2. How do you define “healthy behaviors”?

He said healthy behaviors include a diet that helps maintain “a healthy weight,” exercise, a reduction in eating red meat, not smoking and stress management.

He said an increase in these types of behaviors have led to more people living longer. Thirty years ago, centenarians represented one in every 10,000 people in the United States. Today, that ratio has been slashed in half. One in every 5,000. Life expectancy has also increased¹.

Throughout Grandma Kay’s nineties and beyond her 101st birthday, she had a daily routine of walking a half-mile loop in her neighborhood park. This was often after she exercised in her bedroom, pedaling on her Stamina InStride Cycle, a compact stationary contraption she kept lodged under her favorite chair.

3. How do cognitive activities help slow the aging process?

Cognitive activities, such as doing crossword puzzles or learning a new instrument, are believed to be helpful in increasing a person’s longevity as well, Perls said.

“Just like exercising muscles is important as in strength and balance, exercising your brain is important as well in developing new connections with the brain,” Dr. Perls said.

“My analogy is in the midwest along the railroad tracks there are these telephone [poles] that have lots and lots of wires, not just one wire. And if you have a neurodegenerative process or if you want to decrease the communication from one part of the country to the other, you have to start snipping at the wires.

“But if there are a lot of wires to cut, you have to snip at more and more wires before it becomes a problem,” he added.

Some of the best ways to “build those connections,” he said, is to learn a new instrument or a new language. “Those are hard to do, but the more you do them, it becomes easier. This is probably because of the connections you are making in the brain.

“If you are not willing to do the difficult things, at least do something that is new and different,” he said. “Like painting, then switch to sculpting, then crossword puzzles or sudoku.”

Grandma Kay's cognitive activities of choice in her later years had been word search puzzles and playing Chinese checkers with her grandchildren.

Part 2: How Much Is In Your Control?

If you’re new here—hi, I’m Kevin!

I’m the author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇

The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features:

• Healthy aging/longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life.

• Wine history & stories of the Gemello Winery

• Ancestry & family research tips

There are three buttons at the bottom of every post: “like,” “share,” and “comment.” I love hearing your thoughts about each posts, and your engagement helps attract new readers. Please tell one friend about this newsletter if it’s giving you enjoyment, inspiration or valuable information. 🙏🏻

1. Life expectancy had been consistently increasing year-by-year, peaking at 79.1 in 2019, a 5.33% increase in a 30 year period. But increased deaths from COVID-19 during the pandemic caused the first significant dip in life expectancy in a long time. The U.S. life expectancy in 2021 sunk to 77.2, a two percent drop.