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Happy to 102: The Best Kept Secrets to a Long and Happy Life

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In 50 years more than 1 million Americans will live past the age of 102, according to the U.S. census bureau. Will you be one of the million? If you are, would you like to be one of the million who is living well? The length and quality of your life depends upon decisions you are making now.

Whether you are thinking of your own life or improving the life of others, Happy to 102 is here to help. You'll learn how to maintain your independence and your interdependence, how to eat, how to remain active, how to reduce risk, how to improve your memory and your mind, and how to get help when help is needed. These skills can used by you and the seniors in your social and familial circles.

The authors tell us that discounting injuries and illnesses, psychological attitudes can be the single most important determinant in length of life. We need to visualize ourselves living to a certain age, and be sure to read at least one hour a day. Learning is important ... so to keep our minds active we should add new words to our vocabulary, work on crossword puzzles, and solve arithmetic problems.

This book covers everything from outside services to robots. Did you know there are robots which will remind seniors to take medication and call for help if they suspect something is wrong? In Japan they have electric kettles which use a radio transmitter to let relatives know if grandma has made tea. Amazing, huh? We only have physical fitness centers where I live, but in San Francisco there are brain fitness centers. Seems to me keeping your mind and your body fit should be equally important. What do you think? What good is a fit body without a brain?

Planning to live as well and as long as you can? Here's a book which can help you achieve your goal.

While I would never quibble with the overall contents and message of this book, I do find the title to be misleading. The principles put forward to set you on the path to a long, healthy and happy life are neither new or secrets. Basic advice of eating right and getting regular exercise has been the staple of the quest for healthy living since the birth of the movement. Unfortunately, this message is overwhelmed by the adds for late-night drive through at the local fast fat establishment, sugared soft drinks and entertainments designed to keep the lard in the seat occupying the seat.
Healthy living is a lifetime commitment, which makes it hard, on the positive side; nearly all the foods that are healthy are known and readily available. Other lifestyle choices such as household safety and getting regular medical check-ups are also an essential part of the mix.
The emphasis in this book is on prevention of chronic illnesses, with an emphasis on natural modes of treatment. Even Alzheimer's disease can be battled using the natural remedies of mental activity, social interaction and keeping the rest of the body healthy. The majority of the advice in this book is presented in the context of an elderly person that has lived a good life but is now beginning to suffer from progressive weakness and an inability to effectively maneuver through daily life. It is this that differentiates it from others in the genre and what makes it so valuable.
While healthy advice is always good, the application changes as one ages, what is best in the early years changes in scope as one reaches the "more mature" stage of life. Living a long life is a combination of luck and work and as you can see in this book, it is possible to make a great deal of your own luck.

This is a must read! I bought this as a birthday gift for my aging grandparents with hopes that they would start incorporating a few of these tips into their daily life! When I received the book, I was really impressed with the great diet and exercise tips it contained. The authors have structured it in a way that really allows you to incorporate these things into your daily life. After thumbing through it some more, I realized that the book is really geared towards people of all ages. I found myself trying some of their helpful tips.

My father always told me that it is important to keep a balance between your physical strength (your body), mental strength (your brain) and your emotional/spiritual strength (your heart). If any of those 3 muscles are weak, the rest will suffer. This book gives excellent advice on how to keep all of those areas of your life strong and keep your life long (except this one points out 7 components of your life.) I'm going to give it to my mom for her birthday!

This is a great book for people dealing with planning the care of elders or for older people who would like tips on increasing their health span during their latter years. Demographers say that by the middle of this century, one in 50 women and one in 200 men will live to age 100 or more. By 2031, every baby boomer (a generation that makes up 80 million) will be 65 to 88, so 1 in 4 people of the USA will be seniors!

Some of the concerns covered in this book include: the need to change our perspective on aging and our view on senior citizens, nutritional needs, how to prevent accidents, exercise, tips for fire safety, warning signs that it's time to stop driving, and more.

There is a chapter on psychology that details myths about aging, such as "Seniors die because they are tired of living," and "Seniors want to die and know their time is up." This chapter also discusses the major concern of many seniors: the loss of mental faculties. People are encouraged to read, do crossword puzzles, and do exercises to improve short term memory. Because of loss of short term memory (while long term memory remains strong), seniors tend to talk about the past and this isolates them from younger folks, creating social isolation. (Another reason some seniors withdraw is because of hearing loss, which makes it harder to interact.)

There is an entire chapter on the importance of physical exercise, with many tips and guidelines. There is also a chapter on getting care, and one on technology that can help seniors--including high tech games for delaying dementia! Another chapter discusses the importance of several secrets to longevity: a social life (the link is cited between longevity and participation in local folk singing found in China), sleeping well, and having a purpose to live.

The most interesting chapter is saved for last: It discusses what we can learn from the oldest living people on Earth--the Okinawans. One of their secrets is that while they eat, they consciously leave 20% of their stomachs empty.

At the end of each chapter is a summary. At the end of the book is a great section called "102 Ways to Live Happy to 102" which lists 102 short simple things one can do, such as eating one carrot a day, taking a dog for a walk, using spices, drinking tea, smiling. These are divided into categories (diet, physical activity, social activity, safety, purpose, and mental activity.)

My only criticism of this book is the following: it fails to point out that seniors, if they want to be happy and healthy, need to wean themselves as much as possible from drugs. If you ask any elders who are vibrant and happy and healthy well into their 80s and beyond, what their secret is, most will tell you that they simply do not take any medications. Meds are all toxic, and usually their toxic side effects lead to taking even more meds. Today's seniors are taking more meds than ever. The body is self healing. Given proper nutrition and exercise, it can heal itself of any disease or accident. Drugs relieve symptoms momentarily while creating new symptoms. They are toxic and interfere with the body's natural healing process.

This book is great! Very practical and very achievable. I am not yet a senior, but the advice given in this book seems very easy to heed for myself, now -- for the future, and for my aging parents and friends. I look forward to seeing positive results as I put some of these recommendations into practice. I'm actually looking forward to any future books the authors come out with in the same field. Highly recommended.

Description:

Happy To 102 paves the road towards a long, healthy, successful, and happy life based on several factors studied in the longest living people and cultures in the world today. Exercise, diet, sociability, sense of purpose and mental challenge are discussed in detail with regard to longevity versus disease, and various types of lifestyle changes are examined.

Review:

Since I have ongoing experience with the elderly, I thought that Happy To 102 would be a good reference tool for me, and I was right. The research is clear - there are certain ways that we can live longer, healthier, and happier lives, so why do some people only live to age 65 while others are pushing 106? Well, maybe it's the lifestyles we choose that determine how we age; diet, exercise, cleanliness, medial check-ups, and sociability all play a part in the aging process, and the more regimental we are, the better we will look, feel, and live. Happy To 102 is a short, easy-to-read-and-understand "self-help" guide that breaks down the aging process and discusses how to increase our lifespan and decrease our chances for injury and illness. The authors did a great job writing and setting up the guides format; it didn't feel like they were talking down to the reader or trying to sell something, which I appreciate. The material is really interesting, although, most of the "secrets" to aging well aren't really secrets at all, but I liked the ideas and methods that were brought up. I do wish that there would have been more discussion about drugs and how to live with/without them, as well as how they effect the aging process inside and out, but I did learn a lot about alternative "medications". Overall this book is an excellent resource for people of all ages because the earlier you start following their advise, the better off you'll be.

Rating: On the Run (4.5/5)

*** I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

"Happy to 102" has a wonderful philosophy of aging. The authors are really working to change the way all people think about aging and elders. I love the reasonable advice for eating, exercise and engagement, which really applies to people of all ages. I have changed the way my family eats already. (Quick read, too!)

Sent first class to it arrived a week ahead of time... just in time for my mom's birthday. Was in great shape. Would certainly buy from this company again.

I originally got this book for my grandfather because a friend recommended it to me. But little did I know that the book applies not just to the elderly, but everyone who wants to live "happy to 102". With fun facts and good recommendations, I'd suggest this book to anyone that wants a good reference for healthy living.