Live Long, Die Short (8 page)

Lastly, and probably the most surprising finding, was that our successful agers
stayed engaged
,
refusing to be placed in the bleachers of life
, marginalized by a society that means well but still believes that “pasturizing” our older adults (like we do horses) is a good thing, a humane and caring thing. The MacArthur research shouted out to the world that older adults must
resist the isolation that is a destructive companion of growing old by remaining engaged
, defined as having a support network of friends (and family) and having
meaning and purpose in life
. When I speak on this topic, I think about our ancestors and I routinely add
being part of a community
as an essential component of being engaged in life.

These findings were not that surprising. We only have to look back at our roots as a species, or even to our own lives when we were most healthy and fulfilled, to recognize these common characteristics. This has been reinforced by the recent discovery of “Blue Zones,” five locations in the world where populations live significantly longer and with less disease than the rest of the world. Dan Buettner, in his November 2005
National Geographic
article, “Secrets of Longevity,” and in his book
The Blue Zones
,
⁴
discussed areas of the world where extreme longevity is much more common than other societies, including areas of Okinawa, Sardinia, Costa Rica, and Greece. Comparing the MacArthur Study findings, the Blue Zone characteristics, and the traits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we see surprising commonality. We are forced to consider that it is not serendipity that our recent research findings on successful aging are remarkably similar to the
common traits of Blue Zone longevity populations, which in turn parallel characteristics of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Might these common traits be our core needs for health and successful aging? Might these characteristics be somehow absolutes for us as humans? Authentic needs?

The following lists compare the lifestyles of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the MacArthur Study recommendations, and Buettner’s description of characteristics of Blue Zone inhabitants:

Hunter-gatherer characteristics

• highly physical
  
• strong social connection
  
• strong sense of place/purpose
  
• diet based on plants, fruits, nuts, fish, occasional meat/limited overall calories/obesity rare
  
• little chronic stress
  

MacArthur Study characteristics for successful aging

• physical and mental activity
  
• social connection
  
• purpose
  
• control of risks
  

Blue Zone characteristics
⁵

• importance of family
  
• no smoking
  
• plant-based diet/frequent legumes
  
• constant moderate physical activity
  
• social engagement
  
• low chronic stress
  

This comparison demonstrates the enormous importance of the MacArthur Study. For the first time on a large scale, we understood aging as a multifactorial process that is largely under our control. It’s not that we could substantially change the maximum lifespan of humans (that is basically determined by our uniquely human DNA), but we could influence
how
we aged, how long we remain vital, independent, and being all we can be. With this knowledge as a springboard, aging research exploded, driven
by changed expectations, demographics, and, for many of the studies, the shock value of the outcomes. New findings began to come at us rapid-fire, and it was all good news.

We’ve learned that our brains are not the static organs we’ve been taught they were but instead are dynamic and alterable, with a robust potential for rewiring, growth, and healing. We are, in fact, the architects of our brains. We’ve learned that physical exercise is beneficial way beyond our muscles, heart, and lungs. In fact, movement stimulates production of what my friend Dr. David Gobble calls Miracle-Gro for our brain—BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor—as well as other neurotransmitters that positively affect our mood, sleep, and outlook and significantly reduce the risk of many types of cancer. We’ve learned that social connection with other humans, and to some extent with animals, has a positive effect on our immune system and offers protection against heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia, and depression. We’ve learned the devastating effects of the stress generated by a way of life we now consider normal but which is dramatically different from what we need in order to be healthy; the effects of this “normal” lifestyle are far more destructive than we previously thought. And we’ve learned that the interaction of the multiple lifestyle factors—the physical, mental, social, and spiritual—is complex, a positive health multiplier, and absolutely necessary for our health and successful aging.

No longer can we fool ourselves into thinking we are healthy and doing what we need to do to age well when, in reality, we are merely going through the motions. Spending twenty minutes on an exercise bicycle (while reading a magazine) followed by overeating at our next meal; sitting and staring at a television screen for hours; regularly using drive-throughs, escalators, elevators; having others do all our physical work; eating one meal a day in order to lose weight; convincing ourselves that we are engaged in life because we multitask, cram more and more into a day, are so busy that we’re always thinking of the next task, and have little time for small talk; “knowing” more because we have more answers with the help of our smart-phones or the Internet; having 342 “friends” whom we never look in the eye, or touch, or cry with when they experience a loss; recycling yet driving a large SUV and frequently leaving the lights in our homes on; defining our purpose in terms of what we want rather than what we need—all these
“normal” behaviors, I believe, do not meet, and in many cases are inconsistent with, the basic needs for our health handed down from our ancestors and encoded in our DNA.

I believe we must think of our health, our state of well-being, as a symphony, a thing of beauty. We are the maestro; our bodies, the orchestra; our health and aging, the music. If we are to create our own well-being—i.e., to meet all of the core requirements of authentic health—then we must be the conductor of our complex, highly integrated bodies.

The maestro must conduct in such a way that both the subtle and robust qualities of brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds can contribute to the symphony, yet he cannot allow errant notes to mar the integrity of the piece. He must make space for all instruments to express and enhance the others, listening and staying alert to how all are blending, knowing when one needs emphasis.

As conductors of our lives, we must listen and attend to our physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual selves; we must live a life that allows coordinated expression of all we are, yet we must ensure that all its parts are in tune. We must be ever vigilant for the cacophony of self-induced stress or the overexpression of one component at the expense of the others. When we do this, and all components of the magnificent organism that is us are blended in symphonic harmony, there is an “Ode to Joy”: health, vitality, and a life enriched. We age in an authentic and noble way. We are the maestro. We create a masterpiece.

My good friend Maestro David Dworkin tells me that, with each piece, the conductor has a responsibility to bring the very best of himself to the effort: energy, experience, creativity, spirituality; that each time the baton comes down, he is bringing the music alive as if it were being played for the first time. Perhaps this is why symphony conductors typically live long and robust lives and why we, as conductors of our lives, have the power to make our lives so much more.

Maestro Dworkin’s own life defies traditional belief. Nearly eighty, his physical robustness rivals athletes decades younger. His intellectual curiosity and love of learning and creating are infectious. He thrives on the audiences he travels great distances to see, and to whom he offers Conductorcise®, a creation of his own that uses music to stimulate the conductor in all of us and to promote symphonies of physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual health in his audience. His passion for music and the effects it can have on humans at all stages of life is unequivocally spiritual. I believe that my friend will enrich those privileged to know him for many years to come.

Yet you need not be a maestro. My good friend Al from Pennsylvania, nearly seventy, lives a life filled with the essential characteristics of successful aging. Daily he is at the Y for a physical workout and, even more importantly, to meet with lifelong friends. He lives on a large estate but takes great pleasure in doing most of the work to maintain it. It is labor of love. He still is actively engaged in a family business started by his father, another labor of love. Surrounded by family and the rich heritage of the area he grew up in, Al is an active, connected, contented, and fulfilled man. He, too, will grace our halls for many years to come.

Remember the three key characteristics that define successful aging: low risk of disease and disease-related disability, high mental and physical function, and active engagement with life. When we commit to having these as the defining characteristics of our lifestyle, we are moving toward a better aging experience. And when we fully acknowledge that as humans we have absolute requirements in order to be truly healthy—requirements handed down from our ancestors, requirements not determined by the latest health fad but by
human experience over eons
—then now, now we have a solid road map to authentic health and successful aging. Th is does not mean I advocate regression to our ancestors’ hunter-gatherer culture, only that we at last recognize that our basic needs for health are written in our DNA, not in the latest health advertisement, and that we find a way to acknowledge these needs in creative ways and meet them even in a culture our ancestors could never have imagined.

In the Ten Tips to Achieve Authentic Health and Successful Aging in
part II
of this book, I offer some recommendations that can lead to a lifestyle rich in these three basic characteristics and that will help you achieve your own version of compression—squeezing the most out of your life.

It is the choices we make every day that will determine whether we live the last decades of our lives slowly deteriorating, impaired and isolated, or continuing to grow, accommodating life’s curveballs, staying vital and flourishing. How much we move, learn, connect with others, seek meaning, avoid creating stress, eat well—these are the decisions that determine how we will age. Making these choices not as single decisions but as a part of a commitment to a lifestyle that acknowledges our inherited human needs—this will make the difference in our lives. Such a commitment will
lead us on a journey to becoming truly healthy, with a health acknowledging requirements deeply rooted in who we are as humans, wired into our very DNA, established by thousands of generations of our ancestors, and therefore authentically human. And that same journey will lead us to an aging experience filled with wonder, growth, and satisfaction.

This all makes sense, but we have to ask—is such a commitment possible?

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change.
—CHARLES DARWIN

I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.
—ALBERT EINSTEIN

See everything. Overlook a great deal. Improve a little.
—POPE JOHN XXII

T
his chapter is going to change everything for you. Nearly forty years of working with people to change their lives has brought me to a place where I’ve learned some stuff. I know that most people, particularly Americans, approach change in a way that is doomed from the beginning. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can easily change the way we change. Really, we can. You can.