Summary

This webpage provides five scientifically-backed ways to significantly increase one's chances of living to 100, such as optimizing diet, regular exercise, boosting the immune system, and exploring emerging medical treatments and drugs.

Abstract

The content of this webpage outlines five ways to prolong life and increase the chance of living to 100, based on scientific research. These strategies include maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, and consuming multiple servings of fruits and vegetables daily, which can increase life expectancy by up to 14 years. Regular exercise, such as 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day, can further improve health and reduce harmful inflammation. Optimizing the immune system with key vitamins can slow down the natural weakening of the body's defenses over time. Additionally, investigating emerging medical treatments such as mTOR inhibitors and senolytic drugs may help address aging cells and extend life expectancy.

Opinions

Maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, and eating multiple servings of fruits and vegetables daily can increase life expectancy by up to 14 years.
Regular exercise, like 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, has significant health benefits, such as reducing harmful inflammation and improving mood.
Boosting the immune system with essential vitamins, including A and D, found in foods like kale, spinach, broccoli, and certain seafood, can help slow down the natural immune system weakening caused by aging.
Emerging medical treatments such as mTOR inhibitors (e.g., Rapamycin, RTB101) and senolytic drugs (e.g., Dasatinib, Quercetin, Fisetin, 17-DMAG, Navitoclax, and Catechins) may help address aging cells and extend life expectancy.
Clinical trials are underway to determine if low-dose rapamycin and other mTOR inhibitors can slow down the aging process in humans, while senolytic drugs have shown promising improvements in overall health and longevity in initial studies.
Foods and drugs with senolytic properties are believed to destroy senescent cells, which are major contributors to aging.
Human subjects in senolytic studies have reported improved cardiac function, less dementia, fewer cataracts, and reduced muscle loss.

Five Things You Need to Do Now to Live to 100

Most of us want to live a long fulfilling life. Fortunately, research is advancing the study of longevity and the findings from those studies are increasingly revealing new ways that we can significantly increase our lifespans.

The challenge is to turn this knowledge into advice and interventions we can benefit from. Here are five ways backed by science that will significantly raise your chances of living to 100.

1. Optimize your diet

Studies have long confirmed the benefits of doing common sense stuff, such as eating right. A recent study shows that maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, moderate use of alcohol, and eating multiple servings of fruits and vegetables daily can increase your life expectancy by up to 14 years.

Further, reducing caloric intake by up to a third of your normal daily amount — through diets that feature versions of time-restriction or intermittent fasting —( i.e., eating during an eight-hour window each day, or fasting for two days every week) — can reduce the risk of contracting age-related diseases (i.e., Alzheimer's and dementia)

2. Become physically active

If you don't eat well, it will be tough to maximize the benefits of regular exercise. However, you shouldn’t forgo exercising regularly because the benefit to your health is significant. Globally, physical inactivity is a major contributor to roughly 10% of all premature deaths from chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

So, how much should you exercise? Just over 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity is enough for most people. Not only does that make you stronger and fitter, but it has also been shown to reduce harmful inflammation and even improve your mood.

Avoid extreme levels of exercise as that can actually be bad for you, not just because of the increased potential for tearing tendons or sprained ligaments. It can also suppress the immune system and increase the risk of upper respiratory illness.

3. Boost your immune system

The unfortunate reality is that no matter healthy you are your immune gets less effective as you age. Immunosenescence — a process of immune dysfunction that occurs through the natural aging of the thymus — is the main cause of our progressively weaker immune systems.

The thymus is where immune agents called T-cells identify and fight infections. As the thymus weakens the ability of T-cells to recognize new infections or fight off diseases becomes much less effective.

You can slow this process by making sure you have enough key vitamins, especially A and D which are found in foods that include — vegetables such as kale, spinach, broccoli, and seafood that includes salmon, sardines, herring, and mackerel.

An emerging area of research is looking at signals that the body sends to help make more immune cells, particularly a molecule called IL-7. Through these studies, there may be the development of drugs that are able to boost the immune system by strengthening the thymus.

4. Rejuvenate your cells

A study scientific study conducted in 2009 showed that middle-aged mice lived longer and stayed healthier if they were given small amounts of a drug called Rapamycin. Rapamycin inhibits a key protein called mTOR that helps regulate cells’ response to nutrients, stress, hormones, and damage.

Rapamycin and other similar drugs (called mTOR inhibitors) make aged human cells look and behave younger. Although it’s too early to prescribe these drugs for general use — new clinical trials have been initiated to determine if low-dose rapamycin can really slow down aging in people.

All drugs come with pros and cons — and it has been determined that too much rapamycin suppresses the immune system — so the dose is critical newer drugs such as RTB101 work in a similar way to Rapamycin but it actually supports the immune system in older adults.

5. Purge aging cells

Completely getting rid of aging cells is another promising way to extend our lifespans. A growing number of lab studies in mice using drugs to kill senescent (aging) cells — called “senolytic drugs” — show overall improvements in the health and longevity of mice.

In a small clinical trial, people with severe lung fibrosis reported better overall function, including how far and fast they could walk, after they had been treated with senolytic drugs.

Conditions like diabetes and obesity lead to higher exposure to bacteria and viruses and that can lead to the formation of more aging cells in our bodies which causes us to age more quickly than we should.

The power of senoltytic drugs and some foods is that they destroy senescent cells which are major contributors to aging. Human subjects that participated in senolytic studies report having improved cardiac function, less dementia, fewer cataracts, and reduced muscle loss.

To find and try drugs with senolytic properties look for products that feature— Dasatinib, Quercetin, Fisetin, 17-DMAG, Navitoclax, or Catechins.

Final Thoughts

The ability to significantly increase our lifespan is within our power. Starting with relatively simple things like optimizing our diets and exercising regularly can yield significant benefits to longevity.

However, healthy habits are just a part of optimizing ourselves for long fulfilling lives. When you add the continuing scientific advances — the possibilities of longevity become far more compelling.

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