Centenarian Longevity Habits: What Keeps Them Healthy

Dr. Joe Casciani in conversation with Pam Fultz, Vi Senior Living

Each year, new research sheds light on what helps people live not just longer, but better. In this episode of Senior Living Straight Talk, I was invited by Pam Fultz, from Vi Senior Living, to reflect on longevity, mindset, and the everyday habits commonly seen among centenarians.

Drawing on decades of work in aging and senior care, our conversation explored what truly supports resilience, engagement, and purpose across later life. What follows is our discussion, presented largely as it occurred.

For those who would like to listen to the full conversation, the complete podcast episode is available here:https://open.acast.com/public/streams/64bacf2677b8c7001140a0a0/episodes/695dbe0c8e6dd12efb2a5695.mp3

And if you would like to watch it on video, tune in here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2mEwytvOUkymDx6bvEeduy?si=qokjAozTT12oHcOPNGybOQ

What are some of the most surprising or common lifestyle patterns you notice in people who live to 100 and beyond?

Sure. Well, there’s a lot of factors involved. There’s our genes. There’s access to healthcare. There’s our income level that plays a role sometime, but we also know that probably 70% of our longevity is due to our lifestyle, different factors going on in our lifestyle.

There was a very interesting study that just came out recently from UnitedHealthcare, and I heard about it on NPR. They did a survey of centenarians. They found 100 centenarians, people who are a hundred or over, and they asked them about their lifestyles and what they attribute their living longer to.

It was really interesting. About half of them talked about strength training, weekly physical exercise. A third of them were involved with gardening, some kind of outdoor activity. Another 30% were involved in stress relief, meditation, reflection. The interesting one that I found was that about 80% of them really enjoy humor in their life, and 80% like to laugh. So a good joke or whatever comes along.

And of course, the importance of family connection- another 80%.

What we’re learning from the centenarians is that it’s really consistency and not intensity, not impulsive decisions. It’s consistency over time, whether it’s diet, whether it’s reaching out to others, whether it’s maintaining some cognitive challenge. It’s that steadiness.

We also learned that centenarians let go of grudges. They don’t hold on to a lot of ill will or bad feelings. They don’t spend time ruminating. They wake up with a purpose, a sense of purpose, and something they look forward to, whether it’s a community activity, volunteering, going to school, or teaching.

There’s a lot of active thinking, active movement, and continuing to stay involved and engaged. I think that’s a good roadmap for us all to follow.

Which is more important: genetics or lifestyle? The controllable or the -uncontrollable?

Well, both. It’s hard to start thinking about our medical status when we’re 70 or 80. That really starts in adulthood. We need to maintain good health and avoid chronic conditions—diabetes, obesity, heart disease. That’s hard to start in our seventh or eighth decade.

But when I heard that statistic from the National Institute of Health - research from around the world - that about 70% of our longevity is due to lifestyle factors, that really stood out to me.

As a psychologist, I think a lot of it is our attitude and our outlook, and being able to get up after we get knocked down. The outlook toward the future is so important. If we have that positive outlook, if we feel like we’re continuing to take steps, I think that’s where the game is played, because we can’t always do a lot about genetics, even though that’s changing too.

It’s the psychological outlook - maintaining good health, of course - but also having the idea that my future is important to me.

There’s a motivational speaker who once said the future should be bigger than the past. When I say that to seniors,