The other day, on my way to the office, I met Marco: a 93-year-old man from Turin who jogs every morning and is planning his next trip to Japan (after having crossed all of Italy). I asked him how he did it, considering the fact that my back hurts even if I take a couple more steps. He looked me straight in the eye and said: “Do you know what the secret is? Never think of yourself as old”. Living 100 years seems like a distant goal to me, almost science fiction, and yet it is exactly what will happen to many.
The population of centenarians is growing at a dizzying rate, and behind this phenomenon lies a social shift that will forever change our way of conceiving life.
The numbers don't lie: According to the United Nations, centenarians are the fastest growing demographic group in the world. There were just 14.000 of them in 1950, today there are around 750.000, and it is expected that they will reach 4 million by 2054. This is no longer a matter of exceptional cases, but a probable future for many.
Living to Be 100: Genetics or Lifestyle?
Until recently, it was believed that living to be 100 years old was a matter of “genetic luck.” Today, we know that it is not that simple. As one recent study which we told you about, About 80% of how we age depends on our behavior and the environment we live in.
Genetics certainly play a role (having one centenarian parent increases the odds by 31%, two parents by 67%), but our daily habits have an even greater impact. There is no magic in the advice we all know by now: balanced diet, regular exercise, quality sleep, and preventive medical checkups.
What is really changing? It is our motivation to follow them. When the time horizon extends, it becomes much more sensible to invest in your health today to reap the rewards tomorrow. All the more so since the real problem is not so much how long we will live, but how.
The gap to be filled
There is currently a worrying gap between the average life expectancy (lifespan) and years lived in good health (healthspan). What's the point of living to 100 if the last 20 or even 30 are marked by frailty and disease?
The good news is that science is changing its approach. Instead of fighting individual pathologies, research is focusing on a “systemic” battle on the mechanisms of aging itself. David Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard University, summed up the concept well: “Live to be 150? Maybe. But the real goal is to get there in good health, not as mummies connected to machines". And he's right.
The long-lived company
In addition to biological issues, there is a social aspect to consider. Are our pension, health and welfare systems ready to deal with a population with such an extended life expectancy?
As highlighted in a article on Futuranetwork, living past 100 “can be a blessing or a curse depending on whether one prepares for it or not.” Good health, socializing, financial availability, and family are essential components to being a happy centenarian.
The traditional three-stage life structure (education, work, retirement) has already become obsolete. In a world where we can live for a century, we will have to reinvent our careers several times, alternate periods of intense work with periods of education, and completely rethink the concept of retirement.
Living 100 years does not only depend on us, but living well does: that is a choice.
In the past, reaching old age was a privilege for the few. Today, with an average life expectancy that in many countries exceeds 80 years, it is a certainty for the majority. The next step is not only to live longer, but to transform these additional years into quality time.
As the story of Jeanne Calment, the woman who lived to be 122 and didn’t quit smoking until she was 117, reminds us, there are no magic formulas. But the combination of medical advances, technology, and lifestyle changes can make a huge difference.
Living 100 years, as I wrote in the title of this article, will be the new normal. The question is no longer “if” it will happen, but “how” we will get there. And the answer to that question depends on the choices we make today.
