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Do not take any advice from a hundred year olds to live longer: do these 4 things

  • A researcher of aging said we shouldn't listen to Centenariers' durability advice.
  • Richard Faragher said that a hundred -year -old lives in 100 because of happiness and genetics.
  • His tips for longer life include eating fruit and vegetables and training.

Hundred -year -old may have a lot of wisdom to share, but an expert for aging said you shouldn't see your advice over 100.

Richard Faragher, professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton, Great Britain, told Business Insider that over 100-year-olds do not have the key to long life-“They are simply incredibly happy.”

He explained why and shared four lifestyle decisions that should follow people a healthier life instead.

The lifestyle of the Centenariers don't tell us why they live so long

There are two reasons why a hundred -year -old has lived for so long, said Faragher: happiness or genetics.

This can be explained by the concept of survival presence, he said. The hundred -year -old were the outliers who were not affected by the diseases, stress or bad luck, from which other people died in their generation.

To find out how we can live longer, we should better study why people who not Live up to 100 and try to fight these causes without looking at people who were lucky in life or genetics.

He gave the example of the over 100-year-old year old from Blue Zones, in areas of the world in which people live longer on average and go into traditional Mediterranean diets.

People assume that they live longer because of their diet, “but if you look at Irish hundred -year -olds, their” recipe for success are “Pints ​​of Guinness and Irish stew,” he said. “Why do we attribute the Mediterranean diet and not the Irish meaning?”

Essentially, he said, he does not guarantee that they live as long as the hundred -year -olds in Sardinia or Ikaria – they live longer because of their genes or happiness. not Because of her diet. Your diet correlates with its durability, not necessarily with the cause.


Older Italians talk on the street.

The Mediterranean diet is not necessarily the reason why people live longer in Italian blue zones, said Faragher.

Johner Pictures/Getty Images



However, this does not mean that eating nutritious foods is not an advantage for our health or helps us to live longer. Faragher's point is that people with unusually long Life are “essentially genetically different”.

And although the longevity of the inhabitants of the Blue Zones is probably up to the described combination, growing evidence indicates that the lifestyle of a person could compensate for the influence of their genes – by 62%, according to a study of 2024.

Train, eat your greens, drink or smoke to live for longer

According to Faragher, research results can suggest that four things could help them live longer (even if they don't guarantee that they live 100).

  • Do not smoke
  • Carry out enough exercise (the centers for the control and prevention of diseases recommend 150 minutes of physical activity with medium intensity per week).
  • Eat five fruit and vegetables a day
  • Drink moderately (which the CDC defines as two or less for men and a drink or less for women per day).

    Drinking a lot of alcohol can increase the risk of cancer. This is from a recent consultation of the former US general studies Vivek Murthy. However, if you want to drink, this said in moderation, an expert in alcohol risk previously said BI.

“The difference between someone who does all four of these things, and someone who does none of them is about 14 years in relation to life expectancy,” he said, referring to a study published in Plos Medicine from 2008. It followed the health of over 20,000 people between the ages of 45 and 79.

He added: “The best kind of exercise is the exercise that you can actually do.”

This insults with what Nathan K. Lebrasseur, a physiologist, previously BI: choose an exercise that you enjoy because you will do it regularly, he said. If you can, he recommended that a mixture of cardio and strength training.

Faragher added: “What really matters is to do the best what you can do.”