NEWS: Is alcohol really such an aid to longer life?

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3208521661_587da1bcd9_oMany of our centenarians have thought that a drop or two of whisky, sherry or Guinness have played a part in helping them reach 100. And we’ve seen that there’s apparently a lot of research evidence to support them – moderate drinking has been associated with longer life in several studies.

However, as this BBC article reports, new research raises questions about those studies. Often they have included as ‘non-drinkers’ people who have had to give up alcohol for health reasons. It’s not hard to imagine that this might skew the data and, sure enough, when they’re taken out the health benefits of alcohol disappear almost entirely. Plus, as the article points out, there are 200 diseases and injuries that are linked with alcohol, including 30 that are caused only by alcohol.

So our initial, cautious 5 out of 10 plausibility rating may even be a little too generous.

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Secret no.21 Sense of humour

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5238022900_6b565e3cf3Is laughter the best medicine? You might have thought it would be penicillin but New Zealander Geoffrey Farrow disagrees and, after all, he’s the one who’s made it to 100.

On his 100th birthday, Geoffrey told his local paper that a sense of humour ‘is always better than a packet of pills’.  A wry sense of humour stands out strongly in his interview as Geoffrey recalls that though his family was poor his father was a chauffeur ‘so I went to my christening in a Rolls Royce’. He also has a unique take on ageing, arguing that since his step-children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all call him ‘Pop’, he’s not getting any older.

Like many of the centenarians we’ve seen, Geoffrey has had a far-from-easy life, coping with poverty and the death of his father and a brother during his childhood. So when he says that a sense of humour has been important to him, we should probably listen. But is there any scientific support for that view?

Plausibility rating: 6 out of 10. Many people do believe that laughter is good for health. The scientific study of laughter has a name – gelotology, from the Greek root gelos, to laugh (though despite being coined in 1964, the term hasn’t made it into the OED yet). There is an Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, which it defines as ‘any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations.’ If you want, you can join the Laughter Online University or train in laughter yoga through the Laughter Wellness Institute. And for a time there was even a Journal of Nursing Jocularity, from which we have a complete categorisation of 15 types of laughter, beginning with ‘smirk’, taking in ‘snicker’, ‘chortle’ and ‘guffaw’ before finishing – alarmingly for our purposes – with ‘die laughing’ (don’t worry though: the grandfather of therapeutic humour, William Fry, tells us that heat attacks during fits of laughter are so rare there is no medical literature on mirth-provoked heart attacks’).

But where’s the scientific evidence for all this? There’s little doubt that laughing does bring about physiological and psychological changes – one academic, Ronald Berk, lists 15 of them, from reduction of anxiety to increased production of endorphins.  And there’s some research suggesting health benefits. One study of US women in their 60s and 70s found that those who watched a funny video had lower levels of stress and better short-term memory. So could that lead to longer life? Possibly. A study by researchers in Maryland suggested that laughter might help prevent heart attacks.

Some promise then but – as this overview concludes – there isn’t yet enough research evidence to show that a good sense of humour directly prolongs life. All is not lost, though. Laughter may be associated with another factor that might promote longevity – a positive attitude to life – and the thoughts of Geoffrey and many others do suggest that it it least improves the quality of life.

Which is not to be smirked, snickered or chortled at.

STORY SO FAR: top-rated ways to live to 100

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Twenty entries in to our ‘101 ways to live to 100′ and already one or two trends are emerging. Alcohol and religion both turn up in quite a few of our centenarians’ secrets to longevity, as does chocolate. So far, no one has mentioned genetics (though a few have mentioned ‘family’). And our surprise leader is mountaineering.

Our league table below is surely the only time these words have ever appeared in a list together:

9/10: Mountaineering
8/10: A loving family; Be happy and enjoy life;
7/10: A good doctor; praising God
6/10: One meal a day; sleep; hard work
5/10: Chocolate; Monogamy; Guinness; Yoga; a lot of booze
4/10: Two raw eggs;
3/10: Work less overtime;
2/10: Bacon
1/10: Water from a wishing well
0/10: Pearls
No score: Good food; stem cells

Back soon with: Does a sense of humour help you live longer?

NEWS: ‘Key to longer life is three beers and a whisky chaser’

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3208521661_587da1bcd9_oNo surprise to see that another centenarian is extolling the virtues of alcohol as a longevity aid. Agnes ‘Aggie’ Fenton hit 110 this week in New Jersey and delighted the press and internet with her longevity ‘secret’: three Miller High Lifes and a shot of Johnnie Walker Blue Label every day.  Agnes even says that it was a doctor who recommended the regime to her.

Alcohol has turned up pretty frequently so far in 101 ways to live to 100. Pauline Spagnola said that her longevity secret was ‘a lot of booze’ and Gladys Fielden swore it was Guinness. Nazar Singh talked about good food, his family – and his nightly shot of whisky.

And we know there may be some truth in moderate alcohol consumption helping people live longer, though three lagers and a whisky every day may be pushing is just a little.

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Secret no.20 Chocolate

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Blogger Penny Walford recently wrote a touching piece about her great aunt Marie, who had died aged 106. Marie sounds a remarkable woman, who travelled the world in her youth by hitching rides on cargo ships. Penny first met her later in life, when she would follow her favourite ice hockey team, the Ottowa Senators on TV and, when her eyesight failed, on the radio.

Penny describes how Marie was a strong and active woman who swam every day when she was younger and walked every day as she got older. Even at 106 she was still taking a turn around her nursing home. So surely this explains her long life?

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Well not according to Marie. She and Penny had a shared love – chocolate. And it is to this that Marie gave credit for her long life. Penny describes how Marie ate it every day, with half-hidden stashes of it near her bed and usually a couple of bar wrappers in or around the wastepaper bin. (In the interests of accuracy, I should also say that Penny thinks Marie’s love of chatting and storytelling also helped her live longer and we’ll return to this theme in a later post).

So is this possible? Could Cadbury and Hershey be manufacturing the key to a longer life?

Plausibility rating: 5 out of 10. While at first the idea of chocolate as a superfood seems outlandish, it turns out Marie is not the only centenarian to give it credence. Bernard LaPallo is 110 and he too says, chocolate (along with four other ‘superfoods’) is the reason while 105-year-old Edna Sandys also thought it had played a part. And perhaps we were wrong to focus on the two raw eggs that Emma Morano eats (No. 12 of our 101 ways) and should instead have followed the evidence of the chocolate that goes missing in the night.

So what about the science part? Well, there is some reported evidence to support chocolate’s credentials. It is high in polyphenols, which may protect against heart disease (along with lots of other, healthier-sounding, foods like blueberries, cereal bran and green tea). It may also help lower blood pressure and some studies suggest a reduction in heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Certainly the internet is full of articles with titles like ‘the 9 health benefits of chocolate’ and ‘7 reasons why chocolate is healthy’.

However, on closer examination the benefits of chocolate do tend to dissolve, a little like cocoa powder in hot milk. Many of the studies are small and still need confirmation. And they tend to focus on either cocoa or strong dark chocolate, not the mass-produced stuff that most of us eat and which is made up mainly of milk fat and sugar. Alison Hornby of the British Dietetic Association brings us down to earth: “Chocolate is an energy-dense food that could contribute to weight gain and a higher risk of disease. As an occasional treat, chocolate can be part of a healthy diet. Eaten too frequently, it is an unhealthy choice.”

I fear this is good, sensible advice  – even if Marie, Bernard, Edna and Emma were all able to ignore it and still make their way to 100. Kit Kat, anyone?

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Secret no.19 Mountain walking

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Centenarian Nellie Sillitoe celebrated her 70th birthday by climbing Mount Snowdon in Wales. Nellie and her husband Reginald were keen mountaineers and climbed peaks in Austria, Italy and Switzerland – a pastime that son Richard, now 71 himself, gives credit for Nellie’s longevity.

18163636_2fc37dc769“My parents were great mountain walkers,” he told the local Stoke Sentinel. We were brought up in that environment, being taught to love the outdoors. I think that all those years of mountaineering were very beneficial. (It may also have had some impact on Richard’s choice of career – he is a professor of geology).

Richard’s account suggests other factors may also have played some part in his mother’s long life: “She has always maintained her mobility and made sure to get lots of fresh air and ate a fairly scrupulous diet. Her most exceptional trait, echoed by a number of people, is that she’s never been known to say a bad word about anyone. She always sees the best in people.” And perhaps in situations. Asked what she thought of her 100th birthday, Nellie said: “It’s just like any other day. You have to make the best of this world.”

But sticking with mountaineering for a moment, is it credible that it could have played a significant role in Nellie’s longevity?

Plausibilty rating: 9 out 10. At first glance, it seems unlikely that mountaineering would improve longevity. It is not without its risks, which the US National Centre for Health Statistics helpfully catalogues each year: So we know that if you choose to climb above 6,000m in the Himalayas then your annual risk of death is around 11 in 100. Even routine mountain climbing puts you at the not insubstantial risk of death of 1 in 1,750. However – though the Stoke Sentinel is not clear on this point – it seems more likely that Nellie and her husband in fact took part in what the NCHS categorises as ‘mountain hiking’. Fortunately for this the chance of death, er, plummets to 1 in 15,700. That still makes it more than twice as risky as scuba diving but it’s certainly not base jumping (1 in 60) or grand prix racing (1 in 100).

So if the risks of mountaineering/mountain walking aren’t such an issue, what about the benefits? These, in turns out, are substantial. The British Mountaineering Council says that regular brisk walking will ‘improve performance of the heart, lungs and circulation, as well as lower blood pressure‘, while regular walking ‘has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, stroke and some cancers’. And don’t get them started on the mental health benefits: walking ‘heals our brains, helps us concentrate, makes us more creative and can help treat depression’. But does it add years to life? Plenty of studies suggest it does. One, in 2012, found that regular, moderate physical exercise such as brisk walking could increase life expectancy by several years. Normal weight people who exercised for at least 150 minutes a week lived over 7 years longer than people who were inactive or obese.

So there we have it. Mountain hiking really could be responsible for some of Nellie’s longevity. It alone may not have got her all the way to 100 but it could well have helped.

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Secret no.18 Monogamy

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Linah Mmola was born in Limpopo and apparently turned 117 years old recently in Tembisa, South Africa. I say ‘apparently’ because there is some debate about Linah’s birthday: her family believe it was January 2nd 1898 but there are (perhaps understandably) no documents to prove it. Whether Linah is 117 or a little younger, though, there is little reason to doubt she’s lived a very long life. Her secret? Well, she told the local Eyewitness News that her longevity was down to ‘staying true to one good man for many years‘, as well as a diet of spinach and corn meal porridge.

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At least we think she did’: it’s not clear from the reports whether Linah gave this reason or one of her family.

But let’s assume she did say it: could it be true?

Plausibility rating: 5 out of 10. We know (see Ways to Live to 100 no. 12) that loneliness and isolation can be bad for us but it’s a big stretch from there to concluding that monogamy is good for us. There is some academic research to suggest that marriage might be beneficial. One 1995 US study called, perhaps inevitably, ‘Til death do us part‘ found that married people had longer lives than single people. However that in itself does not mean that monogamy leads to a longer life. For one thing, married people are not necessarily monogamous, as the data leak from the AshleyMadison website this month reminds us. Nor can marital status at time of death – which many of the studies use – distinguish between lifelong pairings and deathbed dalliances. Finally, it’s also possible that those in good health are more likely to get married in the first place, rather than it being wedlock that leads to healthiness. There is an entertaining run-through of other possible health benefits of marriage here. However when a link about married women takes us not to an academic text but at a Beyonce video we know that we are on shaky ground.

For the opposition, one lovely  piece of research by the University of Sheffield bangs the drum for polygamy. It found that men aged 60+ from countries that practice polygamy lived on average 12% longer than men from mostly monogamous nations. ‘Want to live longer? Get a second wife’ said the New Scientist while the Daily Mail found an expert to say that men in polygamous marriages ‘benefit from having a fuss made over them by a gaggle of women’ as well as being better cared for into old age.

While that may not be conclusive proof (not least because it tells us nothing about the longevity of women in polygamous marriages – or the longevity of men and women in polyandrous marriages, for that matter) it is enough to conclude that the case for monogamy and long life is, at best, not proved.

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Secret no.17 Guinness

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Gladys Fielden has been drinking a bottle of Guinness every morning at 10.30 and reckons it’s the key to her having reached 100. She told the Daily Express: ‘They say it’s good for you and it’s certainly done something for me‘.

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Gladys started drinking Guinness when she was pregnant with daughter Linda. She now has two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. One of the grandchildren, Michelle Clews, says: ‘I’ve always known her to drink it. She’s always believed it’s what keeps her healthy. Gladys is very stubborn in her ways and she’s got to have her Guinness. If anyone in the family is ever ill she tells them to get a Guinness down them.’

Whether it’s the Guinness or not, Gladys is not just long-lived but has also stayed healthy and active. She only gave up baking when she was 90. Says Michelle: ‘She’s a remarkable woman and very good for her age. I think we all hope we can be like Gladys if we get to her age.”

Plausibility rating: 5 out of 10. Guinness had stopped using it’s famous slogan in Britain by the 1980s (though it continued in use in Africa and some other countries until the 1990s when – with a nudge and a wink to the belief that it was good for the libido – it was replaced with ‘Guinness: the power’). Whether because of the slogan or not, belief that it was in some way medicinal and – in particular – was a good source of iron has prevailed: a free pint of Guinness after donating blood was only ended in Ireland in 2010. We’ve already seen (Ways to live to 100, number 2) that alcohol in moderation is generally associated with longer life (albeit with some reservations) – but is Guinness any better for you than other alcohol? Well, just possibly. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that dogs given Guinness had less blood clotting than those who drank lager – an effect similar to aspirin. It is also surprisingly low in calories compared to most other beers. On the other hand, it’s not a good source of iron: you’d need to drink 15 pints of Guinness (definitely not good for longevity) to get the same amount of iron as there are in two Weetabix. And – sorry Gladys – not many doctors would recommend drinking in pregnancy these days. So, all in all, Guinness is probably good for longevity in moderation – but no more than other alcohol. That’s not much of an advertising slogan though, is it?

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Secret no.16 A good doctor

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3373106750_2ddd4772d9Centenarian Lilian Grundy doesn’t think she’s particularly old – she has an older sister-in-law in Australia who’s 104 and a younger sister who’s also still going strong.

Her life has taken in running a fish and chip shop, being a Citizen Advice Bureau adviser and – during the war – seeing a doodlebug hit her home town, Oldham. Her husband, Harry, died in 1970 and Lilian has no children.

The key to her longevity, she thinks, is being able to follow good medical advice: “I must have a good doctor. I think my secret really must be that I do what I’m told. If the doctor tells me to do something, I do it.”

So, is she right about her doctor being the key to her long life?

Plausibility rating: 7 out of 10. At first it seems obvious that medical care has played the most significant role in increasing life expectancy but in fact it’s a surprisingly contentious claim. Some historians argue that it is public health issues – clean water, better housing, the decline of smoking, safer food, workplaces and homes – that have played the larger role. Certainly life expectancy grew rapidly in the 19th century, ahead of the great medical advances of the 20th century such as antibiotics. And there were marked falls in life expectancy, particularly for men, from 1914-1919 and 1939-1945 so clearly non-medical factors have played a role too (think of that doodlebug from Lilian’s life history). In fact, one thorough study of the subject credited medical care with just 50% of the increase in life expectancy since 1950.

But what we’re interested in is the growth in the number of the oldest old and especially those who reach 100. Surely the main reason for the increase in centenarians is our ability to keep alive for longer people with multiple long-term conditions? Well, yes and no. A major study of Okinawans, who have more than twice the rate of centenarians of the US population, cites a range of factors that includes public health infrastructure, housing, income, and nutrition as well as access to better medical care.

So it looks as though Lilian’s longevity secret is part of the answer but not the whole answer.

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Secret no.15 Water from a wishing well

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3304915442_aa97907234_o100-year-old Thelma Arnold isn’t sure why she’s lived so long but she has a suspicion: she once visited a wishing well in Fort Lauderdale and drank two scoops of water. ‘I didn’t think it did anything, but here I am,’ she told her local newspaper. ‘For some reason, I’m still here’.

Tragically, though, this isn’t Thelma’s only brush with the supernatural. She recalls seeing her parents with her two-year-old brother and thinking: ‘I’ll never see him again’. He drowned the same day.

Thelma’s mother moved in with her for a while before passing away at the age of 83 and today her grandson lives with her. He is one of five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

Thelma worked as a waitress and a shop assistant, walking to work for years until she passing her driving test at the age of 60.  She thought she’d failed: ‘I was riding along nice when the man said make a right turn and I made the prettiest left turn you’d ever seen. I pleaded poverty and he passed me.’

At 100, she remains mentally alert, reading the newspaper every day and still enjoying watching the TV (recalling that her father regarded the TV as ‘evil’).

Plausibility rating: 1 out of 10. There really is nothing remotely scientific that could support Thelma’s theory. To be fair, that’s as much as there is for homeopathy, which nonetheless supports a multi-million pound industry. But if we’re going to follow the evidence we have to mark this all the way down to one.