Mike Carruthers:
It isn't likely that we'll live to be 100, the people who do
seem to have incredible genes that get them that far.
Thomas
Perls M.D.:
But the vast majority of us have the genes to get us to our
mid to late eighties and to do so in excellent health.
Dr. Thomas
Perls, co-author of the book,
Living To 100…
The reason
that life expectancies right now are only in the mid seventies
and accompanied by a significant amount of illness is because
Americans in general take such poor care of themselves; half
the country is obese, people smoke, they don't exercise…
But many
of us look at the prospect of getting older with a great deal
of fear.
Most
people equate old age with illness, the older you get the sicker
you get. And what I'm telling people is the older you get the
healthier you've been. So that good health habits now actually
do translate into excellent health in the future and a smaller
and smaller period of time that you're sick at the end of your
life.
In addition
to diet and exercise and all the other things we know we should
do Dr. Perls says people who do live to be 100 tend to do other
things as well.
These
centenarians handle emotional stress so well, when they go through
some kind of trauma they tend to snap back within the week.
They have an incredibly optimistic attitude.
Dr. Perls
has a life expectancy calculator on his
website which you can link to from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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