The Secrets of White and Blue to Live to 100 - Trusted Senior Specialists

Today would have been Betty White’s 100th birthday.  Her passing came just 17 days shy of this magnificent milestone.  It’s rare in this day and age and makes one ponder:  “What does it take to live to be 100?

Obviously diet and exercise play a big  part, but so does managing stress and making good life choices.  “There are fewer things that age a person more than stress does; whether it‘s from your work, your relationships, your family or finances,” says Dr. Tricarico.  Sure, we all have these stressors in our lives to some degree but it’s how we deal with each situation that may add up to pluses or minuses on how long we live.

One of my favorite stories my happy go lucky stress averting dad tells to illustrate this point is when he went out on a fishing trip with a few buddies.  Their truck had gotten a flat tire just as they were pulling into their favorite fishing hole.  While the 4 senior men stood around the vehicle pondering what to do, they all came up with different solutions to their problem.  One guy said “ we should change it now so that we don’t have to do it when we get back.  “ My dad’s suggestion was that they should change it later so they could get to their fishing faster.  He justified this by saying, “what if one of us drowns, or gets lost, then we would have done all this work of changing the tire for nothing.”  That was my dad.  Always putting play ahead of work. 

 He was also the guy that picked up his guitar and started to play since that was a big relaxer for him when my mom announced she was having contractions and needed to get to the hospital. I was on the way.  He avoided stressful situations like a superhero or a gladiator with a shield, often much to the annoyance of those around him.  He goes through life with an easy going  state of mind and avoids drama of all kinds.  I’m quite certain he will live to be 100.

In a global sense, I did a bit of research to understand what makes a person live 100 years and something came up with something fascinating you may or may not be familiar with called living in the Blue Zones.  These are small pockets in the world where studies have been done to see what the commonality is, so that we may learn from and follow suit.  (Places like Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, NIcoy, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece and Loma Linda California, according to Dan Buettner, Blue Zones Founder and National Geographic Fellow and New York Times Best selling Author) indicate that most people there live a simple life, have many positive social interactions, walk a lot, get plenty of fresh air and rarely eat meat or processed foods.  Happiness and simple living seemed to be the recipe for living long. 

So maybe we should all learn from this colorful lesson and that is to live long like Betty White, maybe we should explore the Blue.

We here at Trusted Senior Specialists are here to help you live your best life.  Give us a call today 1-855-457-1099 .