[jp57]

Fruit and cold showers!

Every interview with a centenarian asks "what's the secret of your longevity?" They answer and we all nod and stroke our chins and think maybe there's something to that cold shower thing after all. Or whatever. If his secret had been that he drinks three Dr. Peppers a day, or that he does a headstand for five minutes every morning at sunrise, our response would be the same.

He no more knows the secret of his longevity than a gambler knows the secret of a hot streak. Like every centenarian, he's on the mother of all hot streaks, that's all. Our impulse to find some causal agency that we can understand and adopt is no different than a gambler's. When he said "fruit and cold showers", it's no different than saying "if I stand on one foot and close my left eye when I throw the dice, I don't crap out."

I have to think that he knows this and he's just humoring us because he knows we want an answer other than ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. After all, we are all just children to him.

[duopixel]

> I have to think that he knows this

He exclaims out loud "I don't know!" (in Spanish) before humoring with his own speculations about his longevity.

But attributing it entirely to hitting the genetic lottery would also be a mistake: the genetic potential can be easily squandered by allowing your mind, heart and body to decay at an accelerated rate. It is obvious this is a happy and lucid human being who still finds plenty of reasons to stick around.

[jp57]

Sure. I think there are lots of things that can incrementally increase your longevity. Don't smoke, don't drink too much, don't abuse drugs, eat food (not too much, mostly plants), watch your weight, exercise your body, exercise your mind, have sanguine outlook on life, love and be loved, etc. None are silver bullets, but taken together they probably significantly increase your chances to get to 90. But after 90, everyone is increasingly living on borrowed time.

In any case, when the reporter asks the secret of your longevity, they're not really asking "what did you do 50 years ago that contributed to your still being here today?"

[boogies]

The inventor of Twinkies lived to 88 and attributed his health to eating them regularly (I thought I’d read one every day ever since inventing them, but https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-03-me-10272-... says ≥ 2 packets per week).

[jp57]

My dad's doctor told him to stop eating so much butter. Dad said, "My uncle ate a stick of butter every day, and he lived to be 96!"

The doc replied, "See? It finally got him!"

[felipemnoa]

One way or another it always gets you!

[voisin]

I love that. Lesson: Keep talking your book right to the end!

[majkinetor]

Indeed. Cold showers sure have potential to reduce wrinkle formation tho. And to make you temporarily much more alive, if not live longer (just go and try it, use as much cold as possible which probably means you will scream at start).

The centurian thing is probably ocam's razor: specific genes in combination with specific environment must be a good fit for longevity. Knowing that we are in no way closer in understanding anything about it, but at least we know we can't expect random centurian giving meaningful answer.

[PhantomBKB]

Cold showers make you feel better in general and they say it helps increase your immunity.

I've been experimenting with cold showers since the pandemic began, first it was through the summer, and I summoned up courage to continue it through the winter. There were some days when I thought I couldn't take the cold, so I used warm water instead. But I remember the stark difference I felt on those days compared to the rest when I showered in cold water.

If you can bear the cold, I would recommend it. Even if you can't, take it up as a challenge (that's what I did), to get your body to adapt to it. Totally worth it.

[m00x]

> Cold showers sure have potential to reduce wrinkle formation tho

Do you have scientific papers to prove this?

[majkinetor]

No, its more about experience (both personal and various books on topic) and understanding basic skin biology and how hot water with chlorine in it affects it.

[ldx1024]

The most striking thing to me is the presence of his family (good relationships). Seems like such a contrast with the case of David Goodall, the 104 year old Australian who traveled to Switzerland to kill himself. He lived alone and lost his ability to see others regularly when he lost his office space at the university he was associated with. Says he traveled to see his family before killing himself. I think in general the important thing is to have good relationships on one's own terms, which Mr. Goodall did not seem to have at the end.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-australia-43957874

[dkural]

This story got me feeling all sorts of feelings.

[canjobear]

How good is the record keeping in Medellín?

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1.full

[refactor_master]

Wow, I had not considered this at all, but it makes so much sense!

It reminds me of the Greek island of “blind” people: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/greece-zakyntos-island-o...

Yet we have unusually high faith in super old people, because it’s a sort of nostalgic dream we hope is true/replicable.

[WalterBright]

> Every interview with a centenarian asks "what's the secret of your longevity?"

Just like every interview with an Apollo astronaut starts with "what's it like walking on the moon?" I would imagine they get soooo tired of that one.

[leeoniya]

the best statement i've encountered about this (besides survivorship bias) is,

"ask a lottery winner how to get rich, and they'll tell you to play the lottery"

[yrimaxi]

I don’t know if I would consider living a long human life a hot streak.