- Stacy Anderson, a scientist, has studied how centenarians live for over 20 years.
- She believes lifestyle factors such as diet play a big role in how long a person might live.
- She eats plenty of fruits and vegetables and gets eight hours of sleep each night.
A scientist who has studied centenarians for over 20 years shared four things she does to live a long, healthy life.
Stacy Andersen, a behavioral neuroscientist at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, is the co-director of the New England Centenarian Study, which examines the lives of people over 100 who are in good health. She has traveled the country visiting centenarians in their homes, meeting their families, and often sitting down with them for breakfast to try to pinpoint why they have lived so long.
"We're not trying to get everyone to live to 100. We're trying to get everyone to live like a centenarian. So really, to have that extended healthspan," Andersen told Business Insider, using the term for how long a person is healthy.
Living to an extreme age, like 105 and over, is likely about 70% down to a person's genetics, Andersen said, but healthy habits appear to be the most important factor for living to our late 80s and early 90s.
There's no one recipe for longevity, Andersen said, but following "the good, healthy behaviors that we know about and that are well tested" is the best approach to healthy aging.
She shared the habits she's implemented into her life based on her research and meeting hundreds of centenarians.
1) Eat five different colors a day
Andersen tries to eat five different colors of fruits and vegetables every day to ensure she gets a range of nutrients. "You're getting a wider variety, and it just feels good to check that box each day," she said.
Prioritizing fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and lean meats is crucial for healthy aging, she said and pointed to the Mediterranean-style diet as an example.
Based on the eating patterns of people in countries like Italy, Greece, and Turkey, the Mediterranean Diet has been ranked the healthiest way to eat for eight years running by US News & World Report.
A large 2023 study found that people who ate a whole-food-rich diet, similar to the Mediterranean Diet, lived up to a decade longer than those who ate a typical Western diet.
2) Exercise daily and mix it up
Anderson aims to get some movement in every day. She mixes up her workouts, sometimes going on long hikes with her dog, and other times running on a treadmill.
A typical centenarian is active, Andersen said. Many live on their own into their 90s, they often drive for an average of 10 years longer than their peers, and work for five years longer, she said.
The most common workout the centenarians she has studied do is walking or stretching, but they also do a lot of informal exercise, such as housekeeping, gardening, and yard work.
The link between longevity and an active lifestyle is well-established. A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Cambridge found a link between exercising for 11 minutes a day and a lower risk of dying from chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.
3) Get good-quality sleep
Andersen prioritizes consistently getting eight hours of high-quality sleep.
Current guidance on sleep tends to emphasize getting seven to nine hours, but some emerging science suggests sticking to a consistent sleep schedule could matter more.
Everyone is different and feeling refreshed when you wake up is more important than the number of hours you sleep, she said.
"It's kind of when you feel like you're waking up ready to start the day," Andersen added.
When we sleep, it's like a "power cleanse for our brain," she said. It helps remove the proteins that are thought to to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
4) Challenge yourself to learn a new skill
Andersen has taken up sailing, which she said challenges her both cognitively and physically. "I tell everyone, 'Whatever you've always wanted to do that's new, go and do that!'" she said. Several centenarians she has met took up painting in their later years, for example.
Doing something that engages your brain and attention strengthens neural pathways and builds new ones, and is the number one thing we can do for brain health, she said. "Just doing crossword puzzles where you're retrieving information is probably not going to be that beneficial," she said.
A 2021 study published in the journal PLOS One by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, found that after just one week of intensive language learning, a group of 33 participants, aged between 18 and 78, had improved their ability to focus and switch between tasks. A control group of 34 participants who did an intensive course that didn't involve language learning also experienced cognitive benefits, but they weren't quite as significant, the authors said.
