Living To 100: Lessons In Living To Your Maximum Potential At Any Age [Paperback]

Thomas T. Perls (Author), Margery Hutter Silver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 24, 1999

Centenarians, once a rarity, are the world’s fastest growing age group: there are currently about 50,000 people over 100 in the United States alone, almost three times as many as there were in 1980. Centenarians are setting the gold standard for healthy aging. What can we learn from these pioneers? How can people decades younger apply the centenarians’ longevity lessons to their own lives? These are the questions Harvard scientists Thomas Perls and Margery Hutter Silver set out to answer when they launched the New England Centenarian Study.As they probed beyond disease to identify the parameters of an energetic later life, Perls and Silver realized that the key to preserving health and vitality lies not in learning how people stay young, but in understanding how they age well. By identifying lifestyle patterns, vitamins, and medications that contribute to aging well—and may even help slow down the aging process—they show how all of us can maximize the healthy portion of the life-span.Filled with personal profiles, informational sidebars, and quizzes, Living to 100 offers inspiration and solid scientific information to the more than seventy-five million people alive today who can look forward to their ninth and tenth decades.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Perls, M.D., M.P.H., is assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and a geriatrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is the founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study(NECS). His work has been published in the major scientific journals, described in the popular press, and highlighted in television documentaries and national news shows. Margery Hutter Silver, Ed.D., a neuropsychologist, is associate director of the NECS, a clinical instructor in psychology at the Harvard Medical School, and a staff member of the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is co-editor of the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.John F. Lauerman, a freelance writer in Brookline, Massachusetts, is health columnist for Harvard Magazine and an award-winning contributor to national magazines. He is the author, with David Nathan, M.D., of Diabetes: Understand Your Condition, Make the Right Treatment Choices, and Cope Effectively. Thomas Perls, M.D., M.P.H., is assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and a geriatrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is the founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study(NECS). His work has been published in the major scientific journals, described in the popular press, and highlighted in television documentaries and national news shows. Margery Hutter Silver, Ed.D., a neuropsychologist, is associate director of the NECS, a clinical instructor in psychology at the Harvard Medical School, and a staff member of the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is co-editor of the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.John F. Lauerman, a freelance writer in Brookline, Massachusetts, is health columnist for Harvard Magazine and an award-winning contributor to national magazines. He is the author, with David Nathan, M.D., of Diabetes: Understand Your Condition, Make the Right Treatment Choices, and Cope Effectively.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1ST edition (December 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465041434
• ISBN-13: 978-0465041435
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #713,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic stuff, June 20, 2000

By 

Mike Jensen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living To 100: Lessons In Living To Your Maximum Potential At Any Age (Paperback)

This was easily one of the best books I've ever read. The best part was this: there are no magic cures, no miracle herbs, no eternal elixers to living to a "ripe old age." This book paints a realistic picture of aging, namely: how old you lives will depend mostly on genetics, and the best we can do is maximize our genetic potential by doing a few smart, common-sense things. And then the authors give us those things. I have changed my life to incorporate what I can to maximize my potential, and I'll go from there. What else could you ask for?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, educational, instructional., July 11, 2001

By 

"an_avid_book_reviewer" (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living To 100: Lessons In Living To Your Maximum Potential At Any Age (Paperback)

This book taught me that living long is a function of many factors, namely one's physical, social, mental, and spiritual health. Some of the factors are totally out of our control such as the genes we are born with and the time period and location we are born into. Also, I learned that longevity and quality of life go hand in hand. For example, a person who smokes heavily all their life not only will die sooner but suffer less enjoyable health in the mean time. This book provides a profound understanding of the factors that determine our well-being and makes a great guide to improving our well-being. I also found it engaging to read. Few of us can make it to 100 or beyond, but by emulating those who have, we can live longer, better lives. It must be nice to live to see your great-grandchildren graduate college and get married and everything.

Also recommended: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Dr. Stephen Covey, also a great guidebook for improvement.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boston Herald Review by Michael Lasalandra, April 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Living To 100: Lessons In Living To Your Maximum Potential At Any Age (Hardcover)

Perls imparts wisdom for living to a ripe old age

Want to know how to live to a ripe old age? Dr. Thomas Perls' new book, ``Living to 100'' is about as good a guide as you are likely to find.

Perls, a geriatrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has been studying centenarians for years. This book, written with Margery Hutter Silver and John F. Lauerman, summarizes Perls' work and offers tips on how anyone can increase his or her odds on making it to a very old age.

It turns out living to the century mark isn't as rare as one might think. There are currently more than 50,000 centenarians in the United States, three times the number 20 years ago. You will meet a number of them in this remarkable book.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Perls' centenarians is their astoundingly good health. Perls says he suspected these survivors would be a hardy bunch. But that turned out to be an understatement.

Take Tom Spear, who is profiled in the book, for example. He is still playing 18 holes of golf three times a week at the age of 102 and shooting 15 strokes under his age. He hits his 3-wood up to 180 yards! And he's not all that unusual among his centenarian peers. Perls' work with the New England Centenarian Study found that growing old doesn't necessarily mean growing sicker.

``Our eyes told us that the oldest old were sometimes among our healthiest patients,'' he writes. ``Perhaps rather than having survived disease, centenarians were more likely to have avoided the chronic and acute diseases associated with aging in order to live to 100.''

Good genes help, of course. Yes, most of his centenarians were born with genes that helped them reach the century mark. These genes may help them avoid the chronic diseases associated with aging.

But does this mean that until gene therapy is perfected it is useless to adopt healthy lifestyles that may help us live longer and healthier lives?

No, Perls concludes. Rather, he urges people to look into their family histories, determine whether their ancestors lived beyond average life expectancy, find the causes of death and disability and make intelligent choices about how they can delay or even prevent the diseases that killed or disabled their predecessors.

``People with an optimal combination of genes that affect aging can probably afford to relax and indulge themselves a bit,'' Perls writes.

`But those who have family histories of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes and other afflictions should begin doing what they can now to compress inevitable illness into a small percentage of what could possibly be a long life.''

How?

By taking vitamins, minerals and antioxidants; performing mental exercises to keep the brain sharp; getting regular exercise; reducing stress; eating a healthy diet; not smoking; keeping your blood pressure and cholesterol under control; taking an aspirin a day; and, for women, considering estrogen replacement therapy.

The book gives specific recommendations for all of these items and more.

It also includes a test you can take to determine just how long you are likely to live.

Perls, however, derides those who claim to practice ``anti-aging''medicine. Those who boast unproven hormonal supplements and other expensive treatments to supposedly delay the aging process are nothing but hucksters, he says.

``All these quick fixes . . . are sold on the premise that they provide the benefits of a healthy lifestyle with none of the work,'' he writes. ``In fact, compressing morbidity may require some of us to make drastic changes in the way we live. Living to be a centenarian takes 100 years of effort.''