Health and Longevity
Here’s What I Learned About Longevity from a 105-Year-Old Centenarian.
Moderation, balance, altruism, and a curious mind are Algor’s forte.
Introduction
I have been studying longevity as part of my transhumanism research. Longevity is a touchy subject with connotations, ironies, and paradoxes.
Living a long life is a desire for many of us but living a quality life is more desirable. Living longer with higher quality is the optimal aspiration. No one wants a miserable life.
Tremendous research has been conducted on longevity, yet very little progress has been made so far. Only a few theories have shown possibilities.
The most prominent associations are caloric deficit, hormonal balance, moderate exercise, balanced nutrition, cellular detoxification, autophagy, refraining from chronic stress, inflammation, structural damage, and effects of metabolic syndrome such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and cancers.
I won't go into the scientific details of these theories in this story, as I plan to post my detailed literature review on longevity in another post.
However, I want to share a condensed and interesting story of a centenarian who practiced some of the longevity theories without even knowing about them. Therefore, I only focus on four patterns to keep this story in a reasonable size.
I hope you find Algor’s story as interesting and insightful as I found it.
Let’s Meet Algor Briefly
When I met Algor in a community sauna, he was 95 years old. Algor is a 105-year-old centenarian now. From my initial observations, I had a gut feeling that he would be a centenarian. And he exceeded my expectations.
Algor migrated from Ireland to Australia at a young age. When I first met him, his name reminded me of algorism from my math studies or algorithm from computer studies. When I asked about the origin of the word, he said it was probably from Irish roots.
He married three times and still is living with his third wife. He had six kids and 11 grandchildren. The oldest daughter is 80, and the youngest grandkid is 17. Sadly, his first wife died from severe depressive disorder and the second one from breast cancer.
Algor worked as a real estate specialist to make a living. He retired by generating a good passive income scheme. He had no tertiary qualifications. However, from observations, his insights are equivalent to a Ph.D. in life sciences. The way he presented himself was like a psychologist or a relationship expert. His emphasis on social connections was remarkable.
I found Algor emotionally mature, physically fit, socially intelligent, and mentally outstanding. Having a sharp mind, Algor did not display signs of any cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's disease. He seems to manage his cognitive reserves.
He drove until the age of 90 with a modified license after his 85th birthday. He showed his disappointment in the removal of his driving license after a complaint due to a minor accident in a slow speed zone.
He lost all his family friends who were much younger than him. He had no single childhood friend alive. Yet, he still seems to cherish memories. Visiting many countries broadened his horizons. He shared his travel stories with me. I plan to mention them in my travel stories.
What did Algor do differently?
I identified four exciting patterns in his life which are different from typical seniors.
1 — Physical Agility and Flexibility
Moderate exercise was the keyword he used multiple times. He does some gentle workouts every day for at least 30 minutes.
Interestingly, Algor never used weight training in his life. He disliked it. He has been doing resistance training only using his body weight. He loves calisthenics, especially pushups. He does at least 50 pushups every day. He used to do 300 until the age of 90.
Even though he liked cardio, he had never done any long-distance running in his life. However, he made sprints at earlier ages. Nowadays, his main workouts are yoga, gentle walking, gardening, and swimming.
Another enjoyable pastime activity for him was listening to uplifting music and dancing for at least 20 minutes every day, sometimes by himself, sometimes with his partner and grandkids, and sometimes with others in community events.
2 — Mental Sharpness
Algor is an avid reader and keeps a daily journal. He reads a little fiction and poetry, but his main reading content is self-help. He mentioned reading more than 1,000 self-help books starting at the age of 15. His early reading was all about financial matters, mainly in the real estate field.
The first book he read was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This book made him fall in love with reading self-help. He believed that this book made a significant impact on him to become a great real-estate specialist. After that, from what I can remember, he read all the books of Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, and Daniel Goleman.
He never read newspapers. He only follows a few real estates and personal development magazines. He watches TV for a maximum of an hour a day but listens to the radio at least six hours a day, mainly on his community channel and the ABC Classic FM.
He loves mind games. He is big on solving puzzles such as crossword, sudoku, and word games. His grandchildren introduced him to digital mind games such as Eidetic, BrainFitness, Brain Metrix, Lumosity, and Brain Trainer. But he was not very keen on them. He spends a maximum of 20 minutes on digital ones and never overstresses his brain. He prefers non-digital games in moderation. He kept emphasizing the importance of moderation in everything.
I believe his mental sharpness relates to his sleep patterns. He said he sleeps like a baby every night, at least nine hours a day. Once, he mentioned his partner woke up multiple times in need of urinating, but he never had this problem.
When I asked about his sleep secrets, he mentioned a few key points: his last meal is at least 6 hours before bedtime, a mixed cold and hot shower half an hour before bed, a ten-minute meditation, and a dark and cool room. They were similar to my sleep hacks.
In addition, he goes to bed and wakes up at the same time every day and always exposes his eyes to sunlight for a few minutes in the early morning.
3 —Cardiovascular Performance and Body Detoxification
It was serendipitous for me to meet Algor in a community sauna as I could not think of any other way to meet him. Over several decades, I met many centenarians in saunas, especially in Finland, and gained remarkable insights by interacting with them meaningfully. They love conversations, and so do I.
Even though I do scientific observations while chatting with them, I never depict my hidden method and always talk in simple terms listening with empathy, compassion, and great interest.
Algor did not know the terms hormesis and epigenetics. But he understood the concepts when I explained them to him. His lifestyle reflected several practices and the use of these scientific concepts.
Since the age of 20, Algor has been using a dry sauna. He is a regular as the owner of the community health center mentioned to me. I go to a sauna only once or twice a week, but he does at least five days.
I was curious about his heart condition a few times and put my smartwatch on his arm in the sauna at around 70 degrees Celcius. At one time, after 10 minutes, I was sweating so profoundly. However, he perspired less during that time. My pulse was showing 150 beats per minute, and his was showing 90.
Like me, he has no fear of cold showers. So during these sauna sessions, every 15 minutes, we had a delightful cold shower which amused the spectators who thought we were two crazy freaks of this sauna. Algor always laughed from the belly, resonating with the whole center. And he hugged most of us with passion.
I know that extreme heat, like in a dry sauna, activates SIRT2 genes associated with longevity. But, when I mentioned the longevity studies conducted in Finland, he said he had no clue. But he always made a joke about my esoteric remarks calling me “smart Alec”. It is not a derogatory term among friends in Australia.
When I mentioned I ate one meal a day, I found out that he ate three meals a day but no snack. First, he eats a good breakfast, mainly eggs, cheese, butter, and avocado. After that, he has a relatively bigger lunch and a smaller dinner. From what I gather from the food choices, he was closest to a Mediterranean diet.
When I told him I stopped eating all plant foods, he called me “crazy bastard”. He eats both meat and plants in variety, including an apple a day. Eating in moderation, leaving the table with a half-full stomach, he never tried extreme diets. He said he never needed dieting.
One exciting finding was he grows several types of herbs in his garden and always includes a tiny bit of spices in his diet. My body has not much tolerance to spices, but I believe these herbs create a hormetic effect on his health. Hormesis is a biological response to low exposures to toxins and other stressors. It is associated with longevity.
He never smoked, but he drinks a glass of red wine occasionally. He doesn’t take any supplements except one multi-vitamin a day which his doctor advised him recently. He uses Epsom salts baths like me to keep his magnesium level at optimum levels.
He does not experience weight problems, staying at his ideal body weight. Even at this age, he was still in good shape with little belly fat and noticeable muscles. But he is much better than other seniors in the 80s, 70s, and even 60s in the health center.
His skin is smooth, with some grey hair on his chest. He still has hair on his head. Contrary to other younger seniors, he does not wear glasses or hearing aids and does not use a walking stick.
4 — Emotional Maturity and Social Intelligence
Algor’s emotional maturity was evident from the way he presented himself. Over a decade, I had never seen him in a depressive mood. On the contrary, he was always cheerful, keeping an optimistic outlook on life.
Even when he told me stories of his wives and friends who passed away, he kept a natural pose and did not show signs of sadness. He seemed to understand the natural phenomena of death and did not show any fear of death.
Interestingly, he remains intimate with his partner. I assume this hormonal therapy helps with his performance. He recently started a low-dose testosterone replacement therapy as advised by his endocrinologist.
He is currently serving his community as a volunteer by raising funds for charities. He presently sponsors three kids via Worldvision. And he sponsored many kids from third-world countries before and stayed in touch with some of them. He goes to church on Sundays with his family members.
His social intelligence was beyond reproach. He talked with people from every age and gender with comfort and in a calm and composed manner. He showed empathy and compassion in all conversations. I never witnessed him judge anyone.
His sense of humor using local Aussie jokes always brought cheer to the shared sauna room. And his belly laughter echoing to the center made him the central character of the premises.
Conclusions
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Algor for over a year due to a pandemic. But he texts me occasionally, sharing exciting highlights from his life, mainly related to his grandkids who surprise him with exciting gifts.
And he has been thrilled recently as one of his sons purchased an indoor sauna that keeps him warm and happy in this cold Aussie winter.
Through my observations of Algor within the last ten years, I gained remarkable insights about longevity from his lifestyle. Many points in his behavior resonate with me.
From my studies, several longevity patterns were evident in his life. His physical health, emotional maturity, social intelligence, and mental sharpness were the most noticeable.
I thought he might have centenarian genes considering his Irish background. But considering his lifestyle, I believe epigenetic effects played a more critical role.
For example, regular use of the sauna, community activities, moderate exercise, balanced diet, precise use of hormesis, optimistic outlook, community orientation, altruistic activities, and excellent relationships made him a centenarian.
I hope you found Algor’s story interesting and insightful. Thank you for reading my observations and perspectives.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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