Longevity isn't just about genes and medicine. Attitude plays a significant role, says Thomas Perls, M.D., director of the New England Centenarian Study and co-author of the book "Living to 100".

"The trick is not staying young; it's aging well," he says. The study, a joint project of Harvard University Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, has identified some low-tech factors that could help extend life and keep its quality high.

"Centenarians handle emotional stress incredibly well," Perls says. Those individuals who had lost children or spouses, for example, or even survived the Holocaust, were generally optimistic. They also had deep and abiding religious beliefs, which served as a support system.

Diet and exercise were tough to study, because they varied widely. But Perls is a proponent of vitamins and antioxidants, especially tocopherol (vitamin E) and selenium to defend against cancer and heart disease. "At any age, with any genetic makeup, you can still exert a fair amount of control over your physical conditioning," he says.

Other changes may show up in the workplace, where retaining is taking on new popularity with older citizens.

"The concept of lifelong learning has never been more important," notes Andrea Wooten, a chief executive of Green Thumb, a U.S. employment service that has found new work for 40,000 seniors. "We're living now to be 80 and 90 years old, and our whole idea of retirement and how we view older people is going to have to change. We just graduated a class of information technology workers, and most of them were career changes."

A man who turns age 20 this year should plan to be around another 55 years; a woman, more than 60 years to age 81. How much more will you have to save during your working life to pay for that additional time? At least $570,000, if you retire at age 65, according to actuarial estimates.

And if you have an above-average life span, you run the risk of outliving your income. As a result, many are working longer at their jobs or planning to "retire" to a new career in which they will still be paid.These changes indicate that many individuals want to live healthier, happier, more productive lives as they age, and trends seem to indicate this will happen. The ideal is to be able to runa mini-marathon the day before dying -- and have fun doing it!

(c) 2000, Norman Brown, Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate

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