Living to 100 might not be everyone's goal in life, but to get close and be healthy, strong as an ox, and happier than the noonday sun, is.
And, with that wind behind us, it's time for part 3 in our "Live to 100" series. When we asked what the latest research says about living a long, healthy life, one answer cut through the noise, partly because of who gave it.
Turner Osler, MD, is a retired surgeon, and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Vermont. But the credential that matters most here isn't on the operating-room side of his résumé.
Osler is also trained in epidemiology, studying what makes whole populations get sick (the U.S. is 69th in healthiness), stay well, or live long. From his perspective, making to 100 is exactly that – an epidemiological question – and that alone may make him better positioned to answer it than a geriatrician.
Osler's short list is refreshingly unglamorous. Don't smoke. Eat a healthful diet. Move regularly. Sleep enough. And avoid long, uninterrupted stretches of sitting. That's it. No exotic supplement, no biohack, no expensive gadget.
Smart Senior Daily Staff
The single biggest lever: don't smoke
Asked what one change affects lifespan the most, Osler didn't hesitate: don't smoking. But, it's not as simple as not smoking, it's quitting.
For all the attention paid to newer longevity trends, the oldest advice in the book remains the most powerful. If you smoke, quitting is the highest-return decision you can make for the years ahead. Nothing else comes close.
What centenarians quietly have in common
Here's the part most people miss. When Osler looks at people who reach 100, the striking thing isn't that they spend decades fending off illness — it's the opposite. Centenarians tend to show what researchers call a "compression of morbidity": most of their disability and decline is packed into a short window near the very end of life. As Osler puts it:
"Most of the disability and functional decline occurs in a relatively short period near the very end of life."
How they pull this off isn't fully understood, even by the experts. But Osler offers a useful way to picture it. Centenarians keep their risk for the big killers (heart disease, cancer, stroke) low enough and for long enough, that nothing takes them out until very late. When the body finally gives way, several systems tend to fail together over a short period.
That's a hopeful reframing. The goal isn't to white-knuckle your way or grin-and-bear your way through 30 years of chronic disease. It's to keep your risks low for as long as possible, so the hard part stays short.
Smart Senior Daily Staff
"Healthspan" versus "lifespan" — and why it matters
This brings us to a distinction becoming central to how doctors think about aging.
Lifespan is simple: the total number of years you're alive. Healthspan is the number of those years you spend in good health, meaning being mobile, independent, mentally sharp, free of serious chronic illness.
The two may seem the same, but the gap between them is where the truth serum lives. As Osler puts it,
"Nno one wants a longer lifespan if it comes packaged with decades of disability or dementia."
The takeaway for the rest of us
What's striking about Osler's answers is how everyday simple they are. The road to 100, as far as the evidence shows, isn't paved with anything you can't start today: skip the Marlboros and Virginia Slims, eat well, keep moving, sleep enough, and don't sit on your duff for hours on end.
None of it a secret. None of it for sale. And that may be the most whew-worthy news of all.
