A LOOK AT CENTENARIANS

Today there's a rise in the number of centenarians world wide due to healthier lifestyles, more emphasis on preventive medicine, and better healthcare. By returning to a more simple and natural way of living with more peace and freedom, by becoming more family oriented where there's lots of love, having a good family life through healthy communication and understanding, and by improving our awareness, attitudes and values, we're bound to have a more healthy, fulfilling and rewarding life.

Attaining long life is always good if one can have a good and healthy existence. Having to suffer through life is not the same as healthy living or good living. According to Dr. Suzuki who is the Principal Investigator of the OCS, "most centenarians are in extraordinarily healthy shape where they were energetic, youthful-looking, lean and had very low rates of heart diseases and cancer." Another study called the New England Centenarian study says that, "most centenarians have been remarkably healthy and experienced a rapid terminal decline [only] late in life." Furthermore, research states that "Okinawa's elders, age 70 or greater, and centenarians in particular, also seem to have experienced a slower age-related decline and markedly delayed or avoided entirely the chronic diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Alexandre Gueniot, a Parisian physician who lived to be 103, revealed that at age 99, every morning when he arose to work on his book, he climbed three flights of stairs to get to his study. An English doctor named, Sir Hermann Weber, who lived to be 95, was adamant about the role of constant exercise. While in his nineties he recommended one to three hours of walking every day and taking vacations that included mountain climbing and hiking. Ma Pampo and Odom Belle, although they had different lifestyles, both worked throughout their lives benefiting from physical work.