How To Live Forever March 11th, 2008


     photo credit: blrframes

    One of the funnest things to do on the web is to browse Wikipedia. I’ve spent HOURS just clicking random links in the articles to and picking up crazy information! One day, I stumbled upon an artible about Jeanne Calmet, the world’s oldest confirmed person at 122 years and 164 days. I read the entire article, and was still curious about her remarkable journey, so I did more research. Calmet didn’t do anything extraordinary. More importantly, her experiences can be turned into a tutorial on how to virtually live forever.

    Calmet is said to have attributed her longevity to olive oil, which she poured on her food and rubbed on her skin. Olive oil, unlike butter, margarine or other topical oils (think Crisco), is known as a “healthy fat”. It is rich in monosaturated fat; foods containing monosaturated fat lower bad cholesterol (LDL), while raising good cholesterol (HDL). Olive oil lowers your chance of heart disease. Consequently, inhabitants of areas where olive oil is consumed faithfully (such as the Mediterranean) have lower cases of heart attacks and strokes than anywhere else. Olive oil has also been recently linked to lower the chances of colon cancer.

    Calmet was extremely active, even in her later years. She is noted as having taken up fencing at the age of 85, and was still riding her bike when she was 100. Keeping active was one of the keys she attributed to her longevity. Even if you can’t fence or don’t own a bicycle, it’s ok. You can find simpler, easier ways to keep active. The idea is just to do something.  Dr. Richard Allman, Director of the UAB Center for Aging, has developed a measure of mobility entitled “Life-Space“. Essentially, it helps predict the life expectancy of an elderly person by monitoring their frequency of going out and being active. The elderly’s decline in mobility may not necessarily be because they are getting older, but be due to a greater medical concern that should be addressed immediately.

    There is no cure for aging. Unfortunately, life is a finite concept, meaning that it has an end. However, we do have a say in how long before we actually go to meet our maker. The idea is to never forget that. We control, to an extent, how long we live. A minor percentage of your life expectancy is inherited, which helps explain why Calmet’s parents and siblings all lived to be in their 90’s. But the majority of your life expectancy is determined by your external factors, including how well you take care of your body. Although you can’t really control the effects of pollution, accidents, or even chance, you can control how well you take care of your body. If you watch what you put into it, and give it exercise, you can live well past the life expectancy (74 for men, 77 for women in America), and do it comfortably. But definitely not forever!

    Tags: Jeanne Calmet, , , olive oil, , , , , , , , ,


Leave a Comment