Few people live to see an entire century. That elusive third digit is very hard to reach, and there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on how to get there. (Take our four-step longevity predictor and assess whether You Will Live to Be 100.)
The vast majority of centenarians agree on one key to living longer: Keep busy. As Bob Hope said, “You never get tired unless you stop and take time for it.”
Here are 9 iconic men and women who lived into the triple digits, and what we can learn from them about longevity.
George Burns
“If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity,” he wrote, “I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.”
Need some pointers? Here are 52 Ways to Chase Stress Away.
Gloria Stuart
The secret to her long life can likely be found in the title of her memoir: I Just Kept Hoping. She considered Titanic her “last chance to finally prove I could be a first-rank actress.” Even into her 80s, she had big dream she was still chasing.
It’s a worldview that could help anybody. Research published in Psychological Science found that people who report having a strong purpose in life tend to outlive their peers. Susan Biali, M.D., a life coach and author of Live a Life You Love, says that pursuing something we love “releases chemicals in your brain which are known to boost your immune system, keep your heart healthy, and decrease stress hormones.”
Grandma Moses
“Painting’s not important,” she once said. “The important thing is keeping busy.” She also believed in the importance of being in “young company”—people younger than yourself—and to always “keep laughing.” (Here are a few more health-related reasons why You Need a Good Laugh.)
But her greatest insight may have come during an interview with a Florida newspaper in 1960, when she was 100 years old. “I have a lot of boyfriends,” she was quoted as saying. “That’s the way to stay young.” Amen to that.
Albert Hofmann
Could there be something in LSD that made it happen? Even Hofman didn’t think so. During a 2006 LSD symposium in Switzerland, he revealed that his secret to long life had nothing to do with drugs. It was the two raw eggs he ate with his muesli for breakfast every morning.
“In an egg there is everything a being needs to develop—vitamins, minerals and hormones,” he said.
We wouldn’t personally recommend eating them raw. Here are The 14 Best Ways to Eat an Egg.
Luise Rainer
During an interview with The Telegraph, the actress—two months shy of her 100th birthday at the time—said it all came down to being curious. “When you lose your curiosity, you’re dead,” she said, adding, “There is so much in the world that one should know, or it would be marvelous to know. And I know nothing. Nothing!”
Bob Hope
But in an interview to the Weekly World News in 1981, at age 78, he revealed this nugget: “I walk two miles every night, no matter what city I’m in.”
Hope learned about the importance of walking from his grandfather. “When he was 96 years old, he walked two miles to the local pub every day to get a drink,” Hope said. “He died within a month of his 100th birthday, and he remained mentally sharp till the very end.”
(Even a short walk can do wonders for your health. Find out how a 5-Minute Trip Could Save Your Life.)
Run Run Shaw
How did he do it? According to The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the government of China, one of Shaw’s secrets to a long life was his daily habit of “rotat(ing) his feet 64 times before (he) went to bed.”
Um, okay. So there you go. Hey, we didn’t say that people who lived to double digits had all the answers.
Jeanne Calment
But she was also active, not just in her youth but at an age when most people are doing more sitting than aerobic activity. She took up fencing at 86. She rode her bicycle every day until she was 100.
Jean-Marie Robine, a public health researcher and co-author of a book about Mrs. Calment, told the New York Times in 1997 that the recently deceased centenarian “was someone who, constitutionally and biologically speaking, was immune to stress.”
If you’re like the rest of us and don’t have a built-in immunity, here are 19 Ways to Live a Stress-Free Life.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
We don’t have to make educated guesses about why she lived so long. She made it abundantly clear in this quote from her official biography, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother:
“Wouldn’t it be terrible if you’d spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didn’t want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you’d say ‘Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night!’ That’s the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you’ll be run over by a big red bus.”
Now there’s some longevity advice we can all get behind.
