Category: longevity

Exercise for a Long, Healthy Life

If you want to add good, healthy years to your life, make a commitment to walk at least 30 minutes a day. Movement and exercise were a key factor in my healing from cancer, and still play a big part in my life today. When I was healing, I walked every day, whether it was…


Aging Research Is Key to Balancing the Budget

Commentary Last week, I wrote that the path back to a balanced budget could not be simple stinginess, but smart reforms that produce long term returns of higher GDP and lower government spending. For instance, in the 1990s, I helped author four straight balanced budgets, during which we doubled the budget of the National Institutes…


How Optimism May Keep You Alive Longer

You’ve probably heard a story or two about someone who lived past 100. Perhaps you have a wise-cracking great-grandfather. Or maybe you heard about that WWII veteran who ate ice cream and smoked cigars every day. According to a recent study, one secret to a long life might be wholly unrelated to what we eat or how much…


What Is the Key to Japanese Centenarians’ Long Lives?

Data from people who live well over 100 years have revealed a unique gut microbiome community that affects bile acids. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Data from a group of centenarians whose average age was 107 revealed gut microbiota that include Odoribacteraceae, which reliably produces a bile acid called isoallo-lithocholic acid, are important to preventing illness A strong…


Can Your Home Design Contribute to Longevity?

Have you ever heard of “blue zones”? If not, they are areas of the world where people live considerably longer than the vast majority of others. People in these regions, the longest-living people on earth, don’t get their longevity from fad diets, workouts, or other short-lived lifestyle changes. Instead, they live in areas that nudge…


Stepping Toward Longevity

Do you want to live longer? You can boost your chances one step at a time. A new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that walking can lead to a longer life. So, if you’ve started a walking routine during the pandemic or are keeping a score of steps on a fitness tracker, you…


Seal Beach Centenarian Celebrates a Lifetime of History-Making Moments

When 104-year-old Cliff Pedersen was born, Woodrow Wilson was president and women had yet to have the right to cast their vote. The spry Seal Beach, Calif. war veteran is a walking chronicle of information and experience, a man who has witnessed a lifetime of the tragedies and triumphs that make for a breathtaking compilation…