http://www.caring.com/articles/10-clues-you-will-live-to-100
Clue #1: How many elderly relatives are on your family tree? Mostly 80s 1 90+
What it may mean: You may have longevity genes.
Clue #2: How fast and how far can you walk? I don't know
What it may mean: You're in good condition for the long haul.
Faster walkers live longer. University of Pittsburgh researchers crunched numbers from nine different studies including almost 35,000 subjects ages 65 or older. The result: For each gait speed increase of 0.1 meters per second came a corresponding 12 percent decrease in the risk of death.
The average speed was 3 feet per second (about two miles an hour). Those who walked slower than 2 feet per second (1.36 miles per hour) had an increased risk of dying. Those who walked faster than 3.3 feet per second (2.25 miles per hour) or faster survived longer than would be predicted simply by age or gender.
A 2006 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among adults ages 70 to 79, those who couldn't walk a quarter mile were less likely to be alive six years later. They were also more likely to suffer illness and disability before death. An earlier study of men ages 71 to 93 found that those who could walk two miles a day had half the risk of heart attack of those who could walk only a quarter mile or less.
Clue #3: Do you have a lot of people in your life? Yes
What it may mean: Social engagement is a key lifespan-extender.
Clue #4: Are you a woman? No
What it may mean: Odds are more in your favor from the start.
Clue #5 (for women only): Did you have a child after age 35?
What it may mean: This is possible evidence that you're a slow ager.
Clue #6: When were you born?
What it may mean: Growing lifespans give younger people an edge.
And if you're 99 now? You have a whopping 67 percent chance of seeing another year.
Clue #7: Do you worry -- but not too much? NO
What it may mean: There's a "healthy" worry level.
Clue #8: Is your weight normal -- or are you only slightly overweight? Yes
What it may mean: You have better odds of reaching 100 than if you were obese.
A surprising 2011 Albert Einstein College of Medicine study of 477 adults ages 95 to 112 found that these solid-gold agers had no better health habits overall than a comparison group born at the same time that had been studied in the 1970s. One difference: Those in long-lived group were much less likely to be obese.
Both male and female centenarians in the study were overweight at about the same rates as those in the shorter-lived group. But only 4.5 percent of the long-lived men and 9.6 of the women were obese, compared to 12.1 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively, of the younger-lived controls. ("Normal weight" is a Body Mass Index -- or BMI, a measure of height in proportion to weight -- in the range of 18 to 24; "overweight" is 25 to 30; over 30 is "obese.")
This finding echoes other studies showing the greatest risks of death among those who are obese or underweight at age 65 (BMI under 18.5), compared to those of normal weight or slight overweight. A 2011 study at Loma Linda University in Southern California found that men over age 75 with a BMI over 27.4 lived nearly four years less than those with a lower BMI. For women over age 75, a BMI over 27.4 led to a two-year shorter lifespan. Studies of centenarians show that men who reach 100 are almost always lean (more so than women).
Luckily, this clue is one you can control. "Since you can't be sure if you'll live to 100, I wouldn't take the chance of ignoring the lifestyle interventions that we know will at least put you in the half the population who die after age 80 -- starting with watching weight and being sure to exercise," says the senior author of the Albert Einstein study, Nir Barzilai, director of the college's Institute for Aging Research.
Clue # 9: How long are your telomeres? Who knows?
There's this:
(u>Coffee Ages telomere length of Cells but beer extends length
What it may mean: Many people who live to 100 have a hyperactive version of an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres.
Clue #10: Are you a positive person? Yes
What it may mean: Emotion influences health, which influences aging.
But what about the research that says that pessimists live longer?
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