Live well to 101

Every Christmas my GP practice hosts a party for all our patients aged over 75. We take over the village hall and the doctors, nurses and receptionists serve sandwiches, cake, tea and a tot of sherry to our patients. Last year, whilst we were planning the event, we had a serious discussion about increasing the entry age to 80, as so many people are living longer and the village hall isn’t getting any bigger. But one of my colleagues commented that sadly, whilst many of our patients were living longer, so many were in such poor health that they would be unable to make it to the party. What she actually said was that in her opinion, too many of our patients weren’t actually living longer, they were taking longer to die. I was horrified at the time but the more I thought about it the more I had to agree, that too many people spend their latter years (and sometimes decades) in poor health with very little quality of life. Life expectancy has increased significantly in recent times, but healthy life expectancy hasn’t kept up, resulting in more and more people living their latter years in chronic pain and ill health. This played on my mind and as I started to research all the factors that influence how long and well we live, I decided to write my latest book “Live Well To 101”.

While writing “Live Well To 101”, I went to interview several centenarians living full and active lives to ask them what they thought were the secrets to living well into their second century. The people I met came from hugely varied backgrounds. Some lived in urban Britain, others in rural Italy. Some had lived very privileged lives and others, like Guiseppe from Acciaroli on the Italian coast, had been so poor that he used to walk four miles to school barefoot, because his family couldn’t afford shoes.

The differences were striking but what was perhaps more striking were the similarities. Firstly, every single one of the centenarians I met was active. They moved. They grew up pre motor car and would no sooner have had to count 10,000 steps a day, than fly to the moon. They simply couldn’t get through their day without walking way more than that. And they continued to be active into old age. Moving was a way of life to them and as a result not one of my healthy centenarians was overweight.

They also all maintained good social networks. There has been lots of research into this and there is no doubt that keeping in touch with friends and family has a positive effect on the chances of living well into old age.

My centenarians were also all positive thinkers. They didn’t allow stress to get the better of them. When I looked at the science behind this observation, I came across a study where researchers looked at old sports team photographs from 1910. The researchers noted the team members that were smiling and those that were not and then they looked at death records. Amazingly all of those people smiling in their team pictures had lived significantly longer than their less cheerful team members! Certainly something worth smiling for.

My centenarians had been happily married and again research shows that being married improves your chances of living longer ….. if you are a man. They all ate fish and lots of vegetables. The more I have researched the influence of diet on longevity, the more I am convinced of the benefits of plant based eating. We now treat the protein in our meals as the side dish and the vegetables as the main event.

Of course it will come as no surprise to anyone to hear that eating healthily and being active are likely to improve the chances of a long and healthy life, but if I could leave you with a couple of thoughts that will improve your quality of life today and your chances of receiving that 100th birthday card from the Queen (and being mentally agile enough to know the significance of it), they would be to pick up the phone today and speak to someone you have lost touch with and going forward, to do something every day that makes you smile. Just like all the other advice in my book, these are easily achievable things to do that could really change your future. And with that in mind, I’m off to walk my dog (just stroking a pet has been shown to reduce blood pressure) with a good friend…

To find out more about Dr. Dawn Harper or her new book, Live Well to 101, please visit her website at: https://drdawn.com