Marc E. Agronin M.D - The end of old age: living a longer, more purposeful life

M OST OF US envision living a very long life, and we wonder and scheme how to get there. Now imagine if I told you that I had discovered several potential secrets to achieve this, and I laid them before you on three covered silver trays. You uncover the first and discover a small glass bottle containing genuine water from the fabled Fountain of Youth. You uncover the second tray and discover a pill bottle with a brightly colored label touting a formula designed to add years to your life. Finally, you lift the cover off the third tray and discover, to your surprise, two cigarettes, a glass of red port wine, and several French chocolates.

Which would you choose? You might be bemused by the water and tempted to take a sip, but you realize, no doubt, that it is a gimmick and nothing more. The mysterious supplement in the pill bottle may be bolstered by fantastic claims on its label, but there is no solid proof of its power, and any potential benefit is only a guess. And then there is the strangest choice of allthe smokes, the drink, and the candy. If you choose to indulge in one or more of these treats, you may be guaranteed some brief pleasuresbut long life? It seems unlikely. But there is, of course, a story behind this last choice.

Perhaps you have heard of a French woman by the name of Jeanne Louise Calment, the oldest person in recorded human history, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. As a young girl, she watched the Eiffel Tower being built and later recalled the likes of a rather scruffy and unpleasant artist by the name of Vincent van Gogh who used to frequent her fathers fabric store. When she was ninety years old, an enterprising forty-seven-year-old lawyer made an agreement with Madame Calment to pay her a monthly stipend in exchange for her property upon her passing. Unbeknownst to poor Mr. Raffray, however, he would be making payments to this supercentenarian for the next thirty years, up until his own death, after which his widow continued their financial obligation for another two years. When asked about her secret to such a long life, Madame Calment pointed to her lifestyle: she loved regular servings of port wine and chocolate, was physically active but not an exercise fanatic, and smoked two cigarettes daily up to the age of 117. Her longevity strategy, planned or not, certainly seems both unreliable and idiosyncratic, but it is not unlike similarly strange secrets of other supercentenarians.

For example, there was the remarkable Dutch lady Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper. At the age of 112, Hendrikje underwent extensive cognitive testing and scored above average for someone forty years her junior. Her mental clarity remained extraordinary up until the day of her death four years later. An autopsy of her brain revealed few of the telltale pathological signs of similarly aged brains, such as narrowed, sclerotic blood vessels, or plaques containing the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimers disease. Predictably, Hendrikje was neither teetotaler nor triathlete, and engaged in none of the popular antiaging strategies, such as a vegan diet, caloric restriction, vigorous exercise, or any other youth-restoring pill, potion, or plan. When asked about her secret to a long life, Hendrikjemuch like our friend Madame Calmentrevealed a simple and surprising routine: a daily dose of raw herring and a glass of orange juice. The oldest Japanese person ever117-year-old Misao Okawaattributed her longevity to sushi and sleep. The Italian 116-year-old Emma Morano cited raw eggs and brandy as her secret formula, whereas the American 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones eschewed alcohol and cigarettes but included at least four strips of bacon in her daily diet.