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How a Man Can Survive to 85 - or More
Midlife Choices Put Men on Road to Healthy Old Age
or Death |
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News
At middle age, there's a fork in the
road for a man's health. One way leads to a
two-in-three chance reaching age 85. The other cuts
those odds to about one in five.
A road map for that healthy old age
comes from a remarkable study of 5,820 men of
Japanese descent. Studied since 1965, when they were
an average 54 years old, the surviving men now range
in age from 85 to 105.
The study of these men uncovers six
signs that point toward a healthy old age. They are:
-
No smoking
-
No more than two alcoholic drinks
a day
-
Normal blood sugar
-
Normal blood pressure
-
Not overweight
-
Physical strength
The biggest individual risks came
from smoking, having more than three alcoholic
drinks a day, having high blood sugar, or high blood
pressure.
Men who have all six risk factors
have only a 22% chance of living to 85 -- and only a
9% chance of being healthy if they live that long.
The healthiest men are nonsmoking,
strong, lean, moderate drinkers with normal blood
sugar and blood pressure.
Such men have a 69% chance of
surviving to age 85 and a 55% chance of being
healthy then, find Bradley J. Willcox, MD, of the
University of Hawaii and Pacific Health Research
Institute, Honolulu, and his colleagues.
"Our questions were, 'What is healthy
aging?' and 'How do you get there?'" Willcox tells
WebMD.
"I am encouraged very much by our
findings. I think that there is a tremendous number
of things we can do to age more healthily."
The findings appear in the Nov. 15
issue of The Journal of the American Medical
Association.
More Men's Health Signposts
These days, people live longer,
healthier lives. But most of those who reach what
gerontologists call "oldest old age" are women.
More than twice as many women reach
age 85 as men. Three times as many reach 90 -- and
four times as many get a cake with 100 candles.
It's becoming clear that the factors
linked with healthy aging differ for men and women,
says Boston University researcher Thomas T. Perls
MD, MPH. Perls, who was not involved in the Willcox
study, is director of the New England Centenarian
Study, which explores how people live to be 100
years old.
Perls notes that in addition to their
six medical and lifestyle factors, Willcox and
colleagues also found two social factors that boost
a man's odds of a long, healthy life.
One of these is marriage.
Unmarried men, they found, were 70%
more likely to die before age 85. Perls says he,
too, finds this to be true.
"The vast majority of 100-year-old
women lost their spouses in their 60s and 70s,"
Perls tells WebMD. "The 100-year-old men -- who are
much fewer in number -- I would say all of them are
married, either to their original or second spouse.
"Men cannot survive without a spouse.
Women certainly can," Perls says. "They may thrive
without a spouse.
"So there are probably very potent
and important gender differences in healthy aging,"
he says.
The second social factor Willcox and
colleagues identified is education.
Men with less than a high school
education have a small, but significant, 17% extra
risk of death before age 85. But not finishing high
school cuts the chances of being physically and
mentally healthy at age 85 by a whopping 62%.
And there may be other
as-yet-unexplored factors. For example, an editorial
in the same issue of JAMA suggests that fatherhood
likely plays an important role in men's health.
What role? Nobody knows because
nobody has looked at the issue, suggest Craig F.
Garfield, MD, of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare
Research Institute, and his colleagues.
"Now is the time to gather more
complete information about the involvement and
impact of different forms of fatherhood for men, and
the ensuing benefits and risks that affect the
majority of men who are fathers," Garfield and
colleagues argue.
How Men Can Survive to 85 -- and
Beyond
What's the secret to achieving a
healthy old age? No single thing, Willcox and Perls
agree.
For example, Willcox and colleagues
found that having three or more alcoholic drinks a
day lowered the odds of surviving to 85 by 97%. Yet
Perls says this finding, in Japanese Americans, may
not apply to all men.
"Seventh-Day Adventists don't drink
alcohol, and they have the highest life expectancy
in the U.S.," Perls notes. "But more literature is
coming out showing some health benefits to daily,
moderate alcohol consumption.
"Three daily glasses of wine, for
example, may be associated with longevity in Italian
men," says Perls.
So what's most important?
Smoking, Perls and Willcox agree, is
the sharp end of death's scythe.
After this major factor, Perls says,
learning to manage stress may be key.
"We think people who live to be 100
manage stress well," he says. "They don't
necessarily have less stress, but they manage it
well."
And both Perls and Willcox stress the
need for keeping one's weight down, getting regular
exercise, and staying mentally and socially active.
So if you're a middle-aged man,
here's Willcox's advice: "First, get to your doctor
and get your survival risk score calculated," he
says. "Second, start working on these risk factors
we identified.
"And remember, these are the things
we started measuring in the '60s because we knew
they were important. But all of them can be
changed," Willcox says.
"If you smoke, quit smoking. If
you're overweight, get leaner. Start moving more. Do
some strength training. Be a lifelong learner. And
if you are happily married, stay that way," he says.
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