Steven Austad, a researcher and professor of biology at the University of Idaho, is confident that by the year 2150 someone will live to be 150 years old. Healtheir lifestyles, the promises of biomedical technologies, and advances in genetic research have convinced him that someone alive today will be around long enough to easily bridge into the next century.
Austad is not the only one gazing out on the centenarian horizon. A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School has been thinking about the possibility of longer lifespans, too. Their project, The New England Centenarian Study, launched in 1992, is the first comprehensive look at people 100 years old and older.
Results so far indicate there's more to living a long life than getting a lucky break in the gene pool. The right attitude helps, they say. Common among the 75 centenarians interviewed were their upbeat outlook, their stamina and strength, their humor, and a refusal to see age as a limitation on life. Religion and prayer, the Harvard team points out, also provided important health-giving effects. Most of these centenarians, who are frequent churchgoers, are living productive lives, waking up each day with eager anticipation.
