How to live to be 100

How To Live To Be 100

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On the Greek island of Ikaria, people forget to die.

For the most part, they also forget to get sick — the island’s many nonagenarians experience relatively little cancer, cardiovascular disease or dementia.

This small island in the north Aegean Sea has been the subject of much study by researchers across the world. Every outsider wonders: What is the secret to a long and healthy life?

In her new cookbook «Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die,» ancestral Ikarian and part-time resident of the island, Diane Kochilas, offers an insider’s perspective on why this far-flung Greek community lives so long and so well.

An award-winning author of more than 18 books on Greek cuisine, Kochilas offered Next Avenue her six top longevity secrets from this remote corner of the world, as well as a recipe from her book — Spicy Black-Eyed Peas and Greens with Smoked Herring — that is unique to the island.

From her home in Greece, Kochilas emailed us these six secrets to a long life:

1. Eat locally, seasonally, and sparingly.

The octagenarians, nonagenarians, and centenarians I spoke with on Ikaria all described the eating habits of their early years — years of dire poverty, dearth, and isolation — not so much in terms of what they ate but of how little they ate, because there simply wasn’t that much food.

Meat was rare, for some as rare as two to three times a year on the big holidays. For others who may have had animals (mainly chickens), they could afford to slaughter a few times a month. Fish was accessible if one fished; gardens were carved into terraces along Ikaria’s steep slopes and watered sparingly.

The 100-year-olds ate what they found in nature, from snails to mushrooms to wild greens, as well as what their gardens provided. There was and is still virtually no processed food on the island, except in some restaurants.

2. Live deliberately and don’t rush.

The pace with which people move on Ikaria (including my own family!) never ceases to amaze me: slow, deliberate, unhurried, but with enough time to observe and live in every moment.

It’s the pace that means when you go to buy a jar of honey from our friend and beekeeper, Yiorgos, for example, you sit down across from his desk first, gab a bit, joke a bit, flirt a bit, then about 20 minutes into the exchange he gets up and lumbers over to his honey cans. He’s 84. And when he says there is no need to rush, you listen.

It’s the pace that enables people to feel their bodies from the inside, as one does in meditation exercises, and to know if something might be ailing. I had an older aunt who could feel her body in that way and when I started to meditate, I understood her in a different light. It takes tremendous presence and a sense of the now to be able to achieve that kind of sensitivity.

The penchant for taking things slowly has to do with Ikarians’ sense of time, or lack thereof. Resistance, or rather dismissal of the clock as ruler of life, is legendary. If you are not from here it’s hard to explain that mentality, the mentality of «it’s OK to be late, or «it’s OK to leave some wiggle room and maybe not show up at all.» I understand it instinctively. Sometimes it’s very frustrating, but I think the deeper sense of not living by the clock is living by the creed that «man plans, God laughs.»

3. Enjoy sleep.

We sleep so much when we are on Ikaria. It’s a godsend. I don’t know if it’s the atmosphere or the clean air, but I can sleep there totally soundly for 10 hours, even with daylight pouring into the room. Ikarians nap. All older Greeks nap.

Sleeping in the afternoon enables you to have two lives in one day, especially in the summer, which is when I experience Ikaria most: the one that starts in the morning, around 9 a.m., and goes through about 7 p.m., and then starts up again at around 11 p.m. and goes through, well, whenever. Usually around 3 a.m. for us old folks!

4. Let things go.

The Greeks say, «Don’t hold the bad in.» There is so much truth and wisdom in that. Ikaria is a place where people tend to be easygoing, forgiving and unstressed. It’s also a place where the local culture allows for a very liberal interpretation of what it means to be uninhibited.

The panygyria, local feasts of wine and dancing that are usually in celebration of a saint’s name day, are the place to witness how we let loose and enjoy it. Dancing has a lot to do with it. So does the strength of the local wine.

5. Turn to herbs for most of the minor things that ail you and let your body heal itself.

The folk pharmacopoeia is vast on the island, and I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in the book.

6. Walk.

Plain and simple. Exercise for priming body and mind alike. Every old person I know on Ikaria still walks a lot.

Dan Buettner on How to live to be 100+ at TED (Full Transcript)

Full text of longevity coach, Dan Buettner’s talk: How to live to be 100+ at TED conference…

Listen to the MP3 Audio here: Dan Buettner on How to live to be 100+

TRANSCRIPT:

Something called the Danish Twin Study established that only about 10% of how long the average person lives, within certain biological limits, is dictated by our genes. The other 90% is dictated by our lifestyle. So the premise of Blue Zones: if we can find the optimal lifestyle of longevity we can come up with a de facto formula for longevity.

But if you ask the average American what the optimal formula of longevity is, they probably couldn’t tell you. They’ve probably heard of the South Beach Diet, or the Atkins Diet. You have the USDA food pyramid. There is what Oprah tells us. There is what Doctor Oz tells us.

The fact of the matter is there is a lot of confusion around what really helps us live longer better. Should you be running marathons or doing yoga? Should you eat organic meats or should you be eating tofu? When it comes to supplements, should you be taking them? How about these hormones or resveratrol? And does purpose play into it? Spirituality? And how about how we socialize?

Well, our approach to finding longevity was to team up with National Geographic, and the National Institute on Aging, to find the four demographically confirmed areas that are geographically defined. And then bring a team of experts in there to methodically go through exactly what these people do, to distill down the cross-cultural distillation. And at the end of this I’m going to tell you what that distillation is.

But first, I’d like to debunk some common myths when it comes to longevity. And the first myth is if you try really hard you can live to be 100. False. The problem is, only about one out of 5,000 people in America live to be 100. Your chances are very low. Even though it’s the fastest growing demographic in America, it’s hard to reach 100. The problem is that we’re not programmed for longevity. We are programmed for something called procreative success. I love that word. It reminds me of my college days.

Biologists term procreative success to mean the age where you have children and then another generation, the age when your children have children. After that the effect of evolution completely dissipates. If you’re a mammal, if you’re a rat or an elephant, or a human, in between, it’s the same story. So to make it to age 100, you not only have to have had a very good lifestyle, you also have to have won the genetic lottery.

The second myth is, there are treatments that can help slow, reverse, or even stop aging. False. When you think of it, there is 99 things that can age us. Deprive your brain of oxygen for just a few minutes, those brain cells die, they never come back. Play tennis too hard, on your knees, ruin your cartilage, the cartilage never comes back. Our arteries can clog. Our brains can gunk up with plaque, and we can get Alzheimer’s. There is just too many things to go wrong.

Our bodies have 35 trillion cells, trillion with a “T.” We’re talking national debt numbers here. Those cells turn themselves over once every eight years. And every time they turn themselves over there is some damage. And that damage builds up. And it builds up exponentially. It’s a little bit like the days when we all had Beatles albums or Eagles albums and we’d make a copy of that on a cassette tape, and let our friends copy that cassette tape, and pretty soon, with successive generations that tape sounds like garbage. Well, the same things happen to our cells. That’s why a 65-year-old person is aging at a rate of about 125 times faster than a 12-year-old person.

So, if there is nothing you can do to slow your aging or stop your aging, what am I doing here? Well, the fact of the matter is the best science tells us that the capacity of the human body, my body, your body, is about 90 years, a little bit more for women. But life expectancy in this country is only 78. So somewhere along the line, we’re leaving about 12 good years on the table. These are years that we could get. And research shows that they would be years largely free of chronic disease, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

We think the best way to get these missing years is to look at the cultures around the world that are actually experiencing them, areas where people are living to age 100 at rates up to 10 times greater than we are, areas where the life expectancy is an extra dozen years, the rate of middle age mortality is a fraction of what it is in this country.

We found our first Blue Zone about 125 miles off the coast of Italy, on the island of Sardinia. And not the entire island, the island is about 1.4 million people, but only up in the highlands, an area called the Nuoro province. And here we have this area where men live the longest, about 10 times more centenarians than we have here in America. And this is a place where people not only reach age 100, they do so with extraordinary vigor. Places where 102 year olds still ride their bike to work, chop wood, and can beat a guy 60 years younger than them.

Their history actually goes back to about the time of Christ. It’s actually a Bronze Age culture that’s been isolated. Because the land is so infertile, they largely are shepherds, which occasions regular, low-intensity physical activity. Their diet is mostly plant-based, accentuated with foods that they can carry into the fields. They came up with an unleavened whole wheat bread called carta musica made out of durum wheat, a type of cheese made from grass-fed animals so the cheese is high in Omega-3 fatty acids instead of Omega-6 fatty acids from corn-fed animals, and a type of wine that has three times the level of polyphenols than any known wine in the world. It’s called Cannonau.

But the real secret I think lies more in the way that they organize their society. And one of the most salient elements of the Sardinian society is how they treat older people. You ever notice here in America, social equity seems to peak at about age 24? Just look at the advertisements. Here in Sardinia, the older you get the more equity you have, the more wisdom you’re celebrated for. You go into the bars in Sardinia, instead of seeing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar, you see the centenarian of the month calendar.

This, as it turns out, is not only good for your aging parents to keep them close to the family — it imparts about four to six years of extra life expectancy — research shows it’s also good for the children of those families, who have lower rates of mortality and lower rates of disease. That’s called the grandmother effect.

They live about seven good years longer than the average American. Five times as many centenarians as we have in America. One fifth the rate of colon and breast cancer, big killers here in America. And one sixth the rate of cardiovascular disease. And the fact that this culture has yielded these numbers suggests strongly they have something to teach us. What do they do? Once again, a plant-based diet, full of vegetables with lots of color in them. And they eat about eight times as much tofu as Americans do.

How to live to be 100

Let’s be frank, I don’t know about you but I want to live until I’m 100 years old. I want to be fit, healthy, productive and happy, and I want to see my great-grandchildren, heck, my great-great-grandchildren grow up. I’ve just turned forty years of age, and I definitely want to be here to see another forty at least.

Around the world, people living to be over 100 years old are quite rare, but in a handful of places it does seem to be more common. And it’s not just about having a longer life, it’s about really living that life – being conscious in each moment, enjoying it and having fun. I want some of that! So, on the journey of creating this book, I went to some of the healthiest places in the world – places where the numbers of exceptionally old, healthy, fit people are unusually high. You’ll see some of the incredible characters I met in the images peppered throughout this section of the book. And despite these areas being vastly different in geography and climate, generally there are similarities between all these wonderful old people. Food plays a big part, but there are other factors too.

Community & purpose

First of all, the majority of these lovely people are really good fun, and really good company. Now to me, that makes perfect sense, because if you’re a miserable old codger, who’s going to want to hang out with you and care for you? But in all seriousness, a sense of community, of sustained relationships with the people around you, is really at the heart of these pockets of people. Most have a religion or belief of some sort, all of which vary, but I think the message to be taken is the same – that having a sense of purpose, and having people around you to share that with – family, friends, neighbours, community – is really important. You can live alone, but getting out there, keeping in touch with people, laughing and sharing stories, is key.

Movement

Movement is pretty interesting too. Exercise as we know it – going to the gym, going for a run – doesn’t exist in most places. Instead, movement and being active is simply a natural habit in all aspects of daily life. Generally things are inconveniently got, it sounds daft but people sit on the floor and stand up and down more often, they walk a lot more, tend gardens; I could go on. In the very act of living their lives these wonderful people are probably getting more ‘exercise’ than you and I do on an average day, without intentionally setting out to do so. It’s a great lesson – we’ve almost made our lives too convenient. Let’s all challenge ourselves to be more naturally active each day and quite simply, just move a bit more!

Food & wine

Diet-wise, the key ingredients and habits do vary wildly from place to place, but on the whole, meat consumption is fairly low and plant-based meals are celebrated. Most people have a garden or outdoor area where they grow a few things – giving the opportunity to get outside and keep active, but also to eat food that is the ultimate in seasonality and freshness, picked right from their backyard. A lot of people have a small glass of alcohol each day (that’s a small glass, and one, not two, three or four!). And many people share meals when they can with the people around them – rushing less, chewing more, and appreciating their food.

What’s the secret?

I guess what these brilliant folk have taught me more than anything is that the secret to a long, happy, productive life isn’t one golden bullet – there’s no tablet out there that you can take to give you a longer life. It’s about the full package – family, friends, community, keeping stress levels low, the simple act of growing, cooking and eating good food, and sharing that food with the people around you whenever you can, sleeping enough and being nice to people. Remember, there’s no such thing as an insignificant healthy choice – they all count, however big or small. It’s about joining all the dots together to give yourself the best chance.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on all areas of life, but I can certainly help you out on the food front, and that’s why this book exists – to offer a tangible solution to the food part in order to help you live a healthier, happier life. Everything else is up to you – be optimistic, open, and embrace life and all the weird and wonderful challenges it presents us with.

I’m part of a neat little app, called YOU, which is free and totally in the spirit of this book. It’s all about completing daily micro actions around food, mindfulness, movement and love. Getting involved and going on that journey only requires one minute of your time each day, and it’s a great little tool to help you start making small, achievable, sustainable changes.

Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Random House ⓒ Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2015 Everyday Super Food) Photographer: Jamie Oliver

How to live to be 100

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Is is possible for all of us to live to be 100 years old? Do centenarians have a secret, and if so what is it? It’s not just about living to be 100 though — if you want to live 100 years, or even beyond, then you want to be living as independently as possible with a fully functional and healthy body and mind.

Is is possible for all of us to live to be 100 years old? Do centenarians have a secret, and if so what is it? It’s not just about living to be 100 though — if you want to live 100 years, or even beyond, then you want to be living as independently as possible with a fully functional and healthy body and mind.

There are many centenarians who are functioning remarkably well mentally, physically and emotionally. The lifestyle choices that they made, especially at an early age, appear to be the most important predictor of a long and healthy life. Also the part of the world that we live in and how we choose to live our life makes the biggest impact on how long and how well we will live. The leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease, and avoiding this involves mostly our lifestyle choices, not our genes.

So what are the centenarian’s secrets? Here are some steps which appear to be common amongst centenarians:

Keep your low blood sugar level steady

High blood sugar levels are a major risk factor for developing diabetes, which in turn can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Centenarians tend to have low fasting blood sugar, below the recommended healthy blood glucose level of 100mg/dL, or 5.6 mmol/L. Especially chronically high blood sugar can accelerate aging and shorten our lifespan. So keeping blood sugar levels low is the first secret to healthy aging.

Maintain low blood pressure

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries, and is measured with two numbers — systolic and diastolic. Systolic blood pressure (the first number) refers to the amount of pressure in the arteries during the contraction of the heart muscle, and diastolic blood pressure (the second number) refers to the blood pressure when the heart muscle is between beats.

Many factors can increase blood pressure, including obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, certain hormones, stress, atherosclerosis, and the amount of sodium and water in the blood stream. Hypertension is defined as a blood pressure greater than 140 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) systolic and 90mmHg diastolic. This damages the inner layer of arteries and also arteries of the heart and brain, and can lead to heart attacks and stroke, as well as damaging blood vessels throughout the body, which can lead to limb amputation, kidney disease, and blindness. Studies of centenarians around the world have consistently found lower blood pressure levels.

Have low total cholesterol levels

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat like substance that is mostly produced in the liver and is an essential ingredient in hormones and cellular structures. The optimal total cholesterol level is under 200 mg/dL.

A major obstacle to living to or beyond 100 is the development of atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries. This plaque, along with hypertension, is the major cause of heart disease and stroke. We are not likely to live a long and healthy life if our arteries are stiff and clogged with cholesterol-laden atherosclerotic plaque. Many centenarians are able to delay the onset of any cardiovascular disease until the very end of their long lives, or avoid it completely.

Keep your weight steady, and consume less calories

Obesity leads to inefficient energy production in the body and an increased production of oxygen free radicals within the cells, leading to accelerated aging. People who live to the oldest age and remain healthy almost always have low body weights and are lean and fit. They typically do not gain or lose any considerable weight during their adults years. In an age when the average American eats 2,500 to 3,000 calories per day, those who eat closer to 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day with adequate nutrition levels live much longer and are more likely to live beyond 100 years.

Caloric restriction with optimal nutrition has been shown to significantly lower heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer risk factors and to extend life spans. Eating fewer calories appears to slow down the body’s metabolic rate and reduce the production of mitochondrial free radicals that cumulatively damage vital body molecules over time and lead to an earlier death. Research shows that oxidative stress from free radical damage contributes to aging and development of age-related diseases that shorten life. Vitamins and antioxidant enzymes play an important role in boosting the immune system and defending the human body against free radical damage.

Stay active and do regular exercise

Centenarians tend to have a lifelong history of regular physical activity, exercising and maintaining an active lifestyle for as long as they are able. Exercise is important throughout life, with sedentary people losing around 40 percent of their muscle mass and 30 percent of their strength between the age of 20 and 70.

If you smoke then stop smoking, and drink minimum alcohol

Almost all centenarians have not smoked at all in their lives, and among those who did smoke they did not smoke for very long before quitting. Smoking is the most important behavioral health hazard and the single most preventable cause of death and disease. Nitrosamines and other substances in cigarette smoke are potent oxidants and carcinogens that lead to accelerated aging and diseases related with aging.

Most centenarians drink little, or not at all. If you drink to excess — beyond one drink a day for a woman and two for a man — then most likely you are limiting your chances of reaching 100 years of age.

Schedule your sleep and get plenty of rest

Rest and restful sleep helps keep the immune system strong and blood pressure and sugar levels low, it helps to maintain a healthy weight, assists with emotional stability and forming new memories, and it reduces pain perception. Centenarians generally have regular sleep patterns and get plenty of restful, restorative sleep.

Keep your teeth and gums healthy

Avoiding gum disease, from mild gingivitis to more severe periodontitis, lowers the risk of age-related diseases and is connected with a longer life expectancy.

Keep your mind active

Most centenarians regularly exercise their brains — reading, painting, playing a musical instrument, learning new languages, or in some way just continuing to learn and keep their mind active. This appears to build and expand neural networks in the brain, so keeping mentally busy and continuing to learn things is very important to long term survival.

Keep positivity in your life and have a structure

Many studies have found that centenarians have significantly lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. They are typically positive, happy, and extremely satisfied with their lives. How we handle stress is an important part of personality and has a profound effect on life expectancy, and positive personality traits are a strong indicator of living to be 100 years old. Centenarians also typically have a very structured day, doing the same activities according to a standard schedule. Extreme longevity is not avoiding the life’s problems, but rather responding to them efficiently and effectively.

Centenarians generally have open, extroverted personalities, typically being friendly with other people and maintaining close ties with friends and family. Nearly all centenarians have many meaningful relationships and almost none were “loners.” Having daily supportive connections with friends and family members seems to give a safe and secure feeling.

Centenarians are also characterized by having excellent psychospiritual tranquility and serenity. They typically get up every day with a purpose, feel that their lives are meaningful, and believe that the directions that their lives take is under their control but guided by an external power.

When we look at all of these common traits amongst centenarians we see that actually there is really no secret or surprise, nothing that we don’t already know or that we could easily guess. The difference is that although we know we should be doing these things, most people are not actually doing them. We need to apply these, at least one of them at a time, to our life and slowly change our lifestyle to make us age healthily to 100 years or even beyond.

“Living to be 100 — 16 Common Lifestyle Characteristics of the Oldest and Healthiest People in the World”; by Michael E. Howard, PhD

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Как дожить до ста и больше

Май 1, 2011 · 2 комментария

По весенним просьбам трудящихся в День весны и труда перевёл эссе Джорджа Бёрнса «Как прожить до ста и больше», опубликованное для домашнего чтения постом ранее.

Для удобства и большей пользы привожу перевод вперемежку с оригинальным текстом шагом в абзац. Приятного чтения и сравнения со своим собственным переводом!

How To Live To Be 100 Or More, by George Burns
Как прожить до ста и больше, Джордж Бёрнс

People keep asking me, “George, you are 88, how do you do it?” You make films, you do television, you give concerts, you record albums, smoke cigars, drink martinis, go out with pretty girls—how do you do it?
Меня всё спрашивают: «Джордж, тебе уже 88, как тебе это удаётся?» Ты снимаешь фильмы, делаешь телепередачи, даёшь концерты, записываешь альбомы, куришь сигары, пьёшь «Мартини», проводишь время с красотками — как у тебя это получается?

It’s simple. For instance, a Martini. You fill the glass with ice; then pour in some gin and a touch of dry vermouth, add an olive, and you’ve got yourself a Martini.
Да просто! Вот, например, «Мартини». Наполняете бокал льдом. Затем наливаете немного джина и капельку сухого вермута. Добавляете оливку. И с «Мартини» вы уже справились.

Today you don’t have to worry about getting old; you have to worry about rusting. So I also do exercises and walk a lot. Walking is even easier than making a Martini. I take one foot and put it in front of the other foot; then I take the other foot and put it in front of the other foot, and before I know it I’m walking. And you don’t even need an olive. Every morning, I walk a mile and a half. My advice is to walk whenever you can. It’s free; you feel better and look trim.
Сегодня вам не нужно беспокоиться о старении; беспокойтесь о том, чтобы не заржаветь. Вот я делаю зарядку и много гуляю. Гулять — даже проще чем делать «Мартини». Я беру одну ногу и ставлю её перед второй. Затем я беру эту вторую ногу и ставлю её перед первой. И, прежде чем я успеваю сказать «мама», я уже прогуливаюсь. Даже оливка не нужна. Каждое утро я прохожу полторы мили. Мой вам совет: когда это возможно, ходите пешком. Это бесплатно, вы чувствуете себя лучше и выглядите под стать.

If you want to live to be 100 or older, you can’t just sit around waiting for it to happen. You have to get up and go after it. There’s no point in kidding yourself. When you get older you slow down, you wear out a little. But right now I’m 88, and there isn’t a thing I can’t do today that I couldn’t do when I was 18. I wasn’t so hot when I was 25 either. I saved everything for now. I hate to brag, but I’m very good at ‘now’.
Если вы хотите дожить до ста и больше, вы не можете просто сидеть и ждать, когда же это случится. Вам нужно встать и отправиться за своим долголетием. Нет смысла обманывать себя. По мере того, как вы стареете, вы становитесь медлительнее, вы даже несколько изнашиваетесь. Но вот сейчас мне 88, а я по-прежнему могу делать всё то, что делал в 18. Да я даже в 25 не был таким темпераментным. Я всё сохранил для сегодняшнего дня. Не люблю я хвастаться, но я сейчас и вправду очень хорош.

Here are my other secrets for long life:
Вот ещё несколько секретов долголетия:

Think positive. If you ask me what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it’ s avoiding worry, stress, and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it. Worry, stress, and tension are not only unpleasant but can shorten your life.
Думайте позитивно. Если вы спросите меня, какой самый главный ключ к долгожительству, мне пришлось бы вам ответить: избегайте беспокойства, стрессов и напряжения. И даже если бы вы меня не спросили, я бы всё равно стоял на своём. Беспокойство, стрессы и напряжение не только неприятны, они ещё и укорачивают жизнь.

My attitude is, if something is beyond your control, there is no point worrying about it. And if you can do something about it, then there is still nothing to worry about. I feel that way when the plane I am on is bouncing around in turbulence, it’s not my problem. The pilot gets a lot of money to fly that plane; let him worry about it.
Я так думаю: если вы не можете контролировать что-то, нет никакого смысла и переживать. И даже если вы можете что-то сделать, по-прежнему не о чем беспокоиться. Я понимаю, что когда самолёт начинает трясти в зоне турбулентности, это не моя проблема. Пилот получает кучу денег, чтобы вести самолёт, вот пусть он и беспокоиться.

I can honestly say I was not even upright about my heart bypass several years ago. It was beyond my control. It was the doctor’s business.
When I came round from the anesthetic, I heard the surgeon say, ‘George, you did great. You’re just fine.’
I said, ‘Doctor, I wasn’t the least bit concerned.’
‘Really?’ he said,’ I was a nervous wreck.’
Even that didn’t bother me. Then he handed me his bill, and I passed out.
Скажу вам честно: несколько лет назад я и пальцем не шевельнул, когда мне делали коронарное шунтирование. Это было за гранью моего контроля. Это была забота врача.
Когда я отошёл от наркоза, хирург сказал: «Джордж, вы молодец! Всё прошло просто замечательно».
Я ему: «Доктор, я тут и на йоту ни при чём».
«Правда? — Сказал он. — А я был на грани нервного срыва».
Но даже это меня не взволновало. Он вручил мне счёт, и я потерял сознание.

Stay active. I know that for some people retirement works out fine. They enjoy it. I also know that for a great many others it presents lots of problems.
Оставайтесь активными. Я знаю, что некоторым пенсия только на пользу. Они ею наслаждаются. Также я знаю, что для большинства остальных она предоставляет огромную проблему.

To me the biggest danger of retirement is what it can do to your attitude. When you have all that time on your hands, you think old, you act old. It’s a mistake. I see people who, the minute they get to be 65, start rehearsing to be old. They practice grunting when they get up, and by the time they get to be 70 they’ve made it—they’re a hit—they are now old.
По-моему, самая большая опасность пенсии — это то, как она может повлиять на ваш настрой. Когда в вашем распоряжении оказывается всё ваше время, вы начинаете думать как старик и действовать как старик. В этом и есть ошибка. Я встречаю людей, который за пять минут до того, как им стукнет 65, начинают тренироваться быть старыми. Они учатся кряхтеть, когда встают, и к тому времени, когда исполняется 70, они уже добиваются невероятного успеха — они становятся настоящими стариками.

Not me. When you’re around my age you’ve got to keep occupied. You’ve got to do something that will get you out of bed. I never made any money in bed. Yes, find something that will make you get out of bed—like an interest, a hobby, a business, a pretty girl—there we are, back in bed again. At my age at least let me talk about it.
Но не я. В моём возрасте нужно постоянно занимать себя. Нужно делать что-то, что вытаскивает вас из кровати. Я никогда не зарабатывал денег в постели. Да, найдите что-нибудь, что вытащит вас из кровати: увлечение, хобби, дело, красивую девочку — и с нею обратно под одеяло. В моём возрасте позвольте мне, по крайней мере, поговорить об этом.

I firmly believe that you should keep working as long as you can. And if you can’t, try to find something that will interest you. Don’t wait for it to happen; make it happen. Remember, you can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.
Я твёрдо убеждён, что работать нужно как можно дольше. И если вы уже не можете работать, найдите что-нибудь, что вас заинтересует. Не ждите, пока оно появится; помогите ему появиться. Помните: вы не можете не стареть, но вы не обязаны стареть.

I look to the future, because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.
I feel sorry for people who live in the past. I know it was cheaper then, but you can’t keep looking in a rear-view mirror—unless you enjoy having a stiff neck. If you really think your life is over and you have no place to go, I advise you to take very short steps. It’ll take you longer to get there.
Я устремлён в будущее, потому что именно там я собираюсь провести остаток жизни.
Мне жаль людей, которые живут прошлым. Сам знаю: раньше было дешевле, но нельзя же всё время смотреть через зеркало заднего вида — разве что вам нравится сидеть с затёкшей шеей. Если вы и вправду думаете, что жизнь кончена и идти вам теперь в никуда, я посоветую вам сократить шаг. Тогда вы дольше будете дотуда добираться.

I don’t live in the past; I live in a house in Beverly Hills. It’s more comfortable. Actually, you may not believe this, but I don’t waste time looking through scrap-books of my career or rereading my old reviews—they were painful enough to read the first time. I find it’s best to fall in love with what you’re doing today. The things I did yesterday I was in love with yesterday. But that romance is over. I’m very fickle.
Я не живу в прошлом; я живу в доме на Беверли-Хиллз. Так комфортнее. Вообще-то, вы можете мне не поверить, но я не трачу время на разглядывание газетных вырезок, посвящённых моей карьере, или на перечитывание моих старых обзоров — и в первый раз читать их было довольно болезненно. Лучше, я думаю, влюбиться в то, чем ты занимаешься сегодня. Тем, во что я был влюблён вчера, я занимался вчера. Но тот роман окончен. Я крайне непостоянен.

There’s an old saying. ‘Life begins at 40.’ That’s silly—life begins every morning when you wake up. Open your mind to it: don’t just sit there—do things. Swim the English Channel; find a cure for the common cold; be the first to go over the Niagara falls in a rocking chair. You see, the possibilities are endless.
Есть старая поговорка: «Жизнь начинается в сорок». Глупости! Жизнь начинается каждое утро, когда я просыпаюсь. Посмотрите на это непредвзято: не сидите просто так — сделайте что-нибудь! Переплывите Ла-Манш, откройте средство от простуды, станьте первым, кто пересечёт Ниагарский водопад в кресле-качалке. Как видите, возможности безграничны.

If all else fails, try doing something nice for somebody who doesn’t expect it. You’ll be surprised how good you feel. The Scouts have the right idea. Many’s the time I’ve helped a young lady across the street and over to my place. You should see all my badges.
Если больше ничего не получается, попробуйте сделать что-нибудь хорошее тому, кто этого не ожидает. Вы удивитесь, как хорошо вам станет. Есть толк в идее скаутов. Частенько я помогал юным дамам перейти улицу, вплоть до моего дома. Вам просто необходимо взглянуть на мою коллекцию значков «За доброе дело»!

The point is, with a good positive attitude and a little bit of luck, there’s no reason you can’t live to be 100. Once you’ve done that you’ve really got it made, because very few people die over 100.
Получается так: хороший позитивный настрой, немного удачи — и нет причин не дожить до ста лет. А если уж доживёте, то, считай, дело в шляпе. Потому что мало кто умирает после ста.

Перевод свой посвящаю Елене Теремецкой и Денису Бегуну. Первой — за то, что стала двигателем, второму — в доброе напутствие!

Источники информации:

• http://singjupost.com/dan-buettner-on-how-to-live-to-be-100-at-ted-full-transcript/
• http://www.jamieoliver.com/features/how-to-live-to-be-100/
• http://www.thegardenisland.com/2019/12/04/lifestyles/how-to-live-to-be-100/
• http://ilansky.com/2011/05/01/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%B4%D0%BE-%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0-%D0%B8-%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%88%D0%B5/