5 Lessons From the Oldest Practicing Doctor on What NOT to Do to Live a Long Happy Life
I am working towards 100 — read on so you can too!
Howard Tucker, a neurologist from Cleveland, Ohio was named the ”Oldest Practicing Doctor″ by Guinness World Records.
At 100 he is still a practicing medical doctor and neurologist! It’s no wonder he was featured on CNBC. People ask him all the time for tips on how to live a healthy, happy, and mentally sharp life. I would be too!
That’s why I am distilling the things he does NOT do in order to get to where he is at today. Here we go!
What NOT to do to live a long happy life:
- Don’t become cognitively inactive — instead embrace a purposeful career: Dr. Tucker, along with his wife Sara, who practices psychoanalysis and psychiatry at age 89, emphasizes the importance of staying engaged in meaningful work. By actively treating patients and teaching medical residents, he defies retirement stereotypes. He advises against becoming inactive, as cognitive decline often accompanies a lack of purpose.
- Don’t live a sedentary life — prioritize fitness: he maintains a healthy lifestyle by swimming, jogging, hiking, and walking on his treadmill. Even a 15-minute daily walk has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of premature death.
- Reject harmful habits — choose health over harm: Dr. Tucker never succumbed to the allure of smoking at a young age. Smoking is now known to cause a range of deadly diseases. Rejecting harmful habits and making choices aligned with good health is vital to longevity.
- Don’t go all or nothing — embrace moderation: he advocates for a balanced approach to life. Enjoying occasional indulgences like a martini and steak while maintaining a healthy diet exemplifies moderation. I am 100% on board here.
- Never stop learning — share and continuously learn: lastly, he emphasizes the value of sharing knowledge and staying intellectually stimulated. Through teaching medical residents his wealth of wisdom is passed on to future generations.
Maintaining purpose, staying physically active, avoiding harmful habits, practicing moderation, and fostering a culture of continuous learning can increase our chances of living long, happy, and fulfilling lives.
I’m in!
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