Making it to 100

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

👋 Hello, I’m Kevin Ferguson, author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the book's origin story.) 🍇 This is my newsletter, which features longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life. It also includes stories of the Gemello Winery, which her late husband, Mario, ran for nearly half a century. 📖 I’m sure you’ll find my maternal grandparents are quite lovable characters. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button.

This newsletter is published twice a month on Mondays. Every third Monday features a story or tips on living a longer, higher-quality of life.

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Making it to 100: How much of it is in your control?

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). 

Grandma Kay at her Centennial Birthday in 2021

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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.

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.

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

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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.