Healthy Aging 2025: Mind and Body
Attend the Stanford Center on Longevity’s second annual healthy aging conference, May 5, 2025 (in-person and via Zoom). Leading experts on nutrition, fitness, social connection, health tech, and wellness, will share the latest research, innovations, and best practices to support a longer, healthier life. For more information and registration details, follow the link below.
Nature vs Nurture
A healthy lifestyle can take you only so far. Research shows that eating right, exercising often, and otherwise adopting healthy habits can extend the lifespan—to about 80, or even 90 years of age. After that, genetics are likely the most significant factor. Do you have any centenarians in your family? Read the NYT article to find out more about longevity influences.
How Class Divide Impacts Aging and Longevity
Tune in to Columbia University’s upcoming aging seminar, Disconnected - The Growing Class Divide in Civic Life. Sam Pressler, Practitioner Fellow at Columbia University, will lead discussion on how social assets like friends, education, religious/community groups, and other forms of support–often dictated early on by level of education–can impact longevity and well being.
Follow the link below to register for the session, which takes place February 19, from 11am - 12pm ET.
The Vitalizing Effects of Volunteering
In addition to serving your community, new research found that volunteering can serve you, as well! Even giving your time for just one hour a week can contribute to a longer, healthier life. Experts noted that volunteering supports physical, social, and psychological benefits, resulting in a positive impact on biological aging. Follow the link below to Health.com to read more about the benefits of helping others.
Envisioning a Less Ageist Society
The Stanford Center on Longevity will host Century Summit V, January 22-23, 2025, with limited in-person attendance at Stanford and a virtual audience around the world. The conference will focus on challenging ageism and creating a positive intergenerational society. Attendance is free, and more information, along with the registration link, can be found by following the link below.
Centenarian In Chief
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29th, was 100 years old–a milestone age not achieved by just anyone. To look at the lynchpins of his long and active life, Fortune spotlights Carter’s three strategies for longevity. Read on to see how fitness, love, and community factored in.
Can Do at 102
We recently had the privilege of visiting Rancho La Puerta in Baja California, MX, and attended a Q&A with its 102-year-old founder, Deborah Szekely. What an amazing life she’s led, from founding the wellness retreat and spa in 1940, to establishing San Diego’s New Americans Museum and Immigration Learning Center at age 80. Her advice for staying healthy and engaged? Maintain an active social network, be positive, and just move (she still walks one mile every day)! Read more about Deborah’s remarkable story in this Fortune interview.
The Dick Van Dyke Show Lives On
To honor Dick Van Dyke’s 99th birthday, Coldplay’s Chris Martin invited the actor and comedian to join him in recording a music video of the band’s song, “All My Love.” In the 7-minute version, Van Dyke sings, dances, and shares poignant memories of his decades-long career. Happy Birthday Mr. Van Dyke, and congratulations on this cool, co-generational collaboration!
Follow the link below to watch.
The Long and Winding Road
Might we take a different route if we knew we’d live to be 100? According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half a million Americans are expected to live to at least 100 years of age by 2050—that’s quadruple the current number of centenarians. Laura Carstensen, founder of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity, suggests we need to rethink our traditional pathways to optimize this new-found longevity. For example, she suggests making childhood longer, or working less while rearing children and more later in life instead of retiring. Read on for more innovative ideas.
Pragmatism + Optimism = 102 and Still Going Strong
Meet Hilda Jaffe, 102, who defies age and is the veritable embodiment of a ‘superager.’ As the Washington Post reports, at age 88, Jaffe decided to turn the page and start a new chapter, selling her home in New Jersey and moving to Manhattan, taking up residence in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. More than a decade later, she is still actively enjoying the easy walks to grocery stores, seeing opera, and living independently in the city that never sleeps. According to Sofiya Milman, director of human longevity studies at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, superagers typically have a very positive outlook on life, with built-in resilience. Read on to learn more about Jaffe’s approach to life and what studies of other superagers reveal.
A More Resilient Brain and the Science of Longevity
It’s not too late to register for the Buck Institute’s December 11th Seminar on Aging. Tickets are still available for joining via Zoom. And, while you’re at their site, you can also get a leg up on January’s seminar.
First up, this Wednesday, Tara Tracy, PhD, will be highlighting how clearing a toxic protein in the brain can help promote the resilience of synapses, which send information between neurons. Already successful with restoring memory in mice, her focus offers great promise.
Kicking off the new year, Eric Verdin, MD, will lead a talk centered around the evolving science of longevity, parsing out what is fact versus fiction. That seminar will take place January 8, 2025.
Inside Ted Danson’s New Netflix Series
Cheers to Danson & Co. for creating a show that doesn't shy away from the topic of aging. “A Man on the Inside” is a comedy, but one that also highlights some weighty themes, including the fact that life doesn’t stop just because you get older. Streaming now.
What We’re Reading this Week: “The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond”
Author Debra Whitman, an economist and aging expert, offers a roadmap for living a healthier and more meaningful second half of life. Two key insights:
Mind Over Matter – Yes, healthy habits are critical to longevity, but mindset has a significant impact as well. Researchers found that those with positive attitudes of aging can live more than seven years longer than cohorts with negative outlooks.
Older Workers Are a Force – More older Americans are working than ever before, and contrary to what many believe, studies show they are a benefit to the economy and to their employers, activating both productivity and innovation.
Staving Off Loneliness with Intergenerational Relationships
"What is the Intergenerational Future?" On November 14th @ 12PM PT, join the Stanford Center on Longevity for its final webinar on ageism. Experts will discuss how fostering intergenerational relationships can combat loneliness, and create more empathetic, productive communities.
Is There a Cure for Loneliness?
In Season 6 of the Stanford Center on Longevity’s podcast, “Century Lives,” host Ken Stern explores “The Century Club,” a collective of nations focused on societal solutions to aging and longevity, particularly those addressing loneliness. Traveling the world, Ken learns how other countries are confronting social isolation, perhaps the number one detriment to healthy aging, and an issue largely ignored in the U.S. Subscribe and/or follow the link below.
It’s Not Just the Quantity, It’s the Quality
A recent study reveals that while life expectancy has increased–thanks in large part to medical advances–it is reaching its limit. Researchers suggest shifting the focus from lifespan to healthspan, with a sharper focus on the biology of aging.
Take a Vacation from Aging? Not Really.
According to new research, travel can provide numerous health benefits, including alleviating chronic stress, and boosting physical exertion and mental engagement. And we’re not talking about time travel! Experts posit that engaging both mind and body is critical to healthy aging and, potentially, delaying age-related decline.
Could ‘Dog Years’ Be Converted into a New Measure of Time to Defy Aging?
A global research initiative called The Dog Aging Project is embarking (pun intended) on a vast health study that brings together dogs and their owners, scientists, veterinarians and others to learn more about factors affecting canine health, longevity, and aging. Read on to learn more about the effort or to see if your dog qualifies for participation.
Better Living Through Chemistry
Can a magic pill render age and aging irrelevant? The New York Times reports that Rapamycin, prescribed to organ transplant patients to suppress their immune systems, is now being explored by a much broader group for the purpose of extending healthy years and delaying age-related diseases. Health advocate and anti-aging influencer Dr. Peter Attia is one of the champions for the substance being hailed as the “gold standard” for extending life.