Everywhere we look now we see claims such as "anti-aging product, anti-aging secret, secret to youth, amazing new anti-aging product, anti-aging wrinkle cream, anti-aging vitamins" I think some of these products have some merit, but I think the ideal approach involves combining anti-aging products and techniqes with techniques we can learn from a select group of individuals.

You might be asking who are we talking about...who holds the anti-aging secret? We are talking about Centenarians.

When trying to find effective anti-aging techniques it makes sense to study people that have, to a certain extent, tapped into an anti-aging secret, whether on purpose or not. I believe that you and I should learn anti-aging secrets from amazing individuals called centenarians to improve our longevity.

While life expectancies across the world are said to be far from 100, we do have a unique group of individuals who offer hope: The centenarian, which is defined as someone who has attained the age of 100 years or more.

The United States currently has the greatest number of centenarians in the world, numbering over 55,000 in the year 2005. Quite likely this is attributable to the population. Japan is second.

What are the commonalities shared by centenarians? There was a study that was performed some time ago that attemped to look at some of the these similarities. Here are the key findings:

Those who live more than a hundred years have nearly always been more mobile and physically active than the average.

Mental exercise seems to be as important as physical activity.

Nearly all the centenarians retained a sharp interest in the world around them.

A sense of humour also appears to be an important ingredient. Most centenarians manage to keep a twinkle in their eyes even if their vision is not as good as it used to be.

Other qualities that appear time and again among centenarians were: a degree of self-discipline a tendency to organize their lives through daily routines; moderation in eating; moderation in drinking alcohol; a focus on things outside themselves without too much introspection or self-examination; and finally, and most importantly, a calm, even-tempered nature.

Obviously centenarians are not typical; however if one considers the fact that "supercentenarians" exist, which by definition are persons who have lived to the age of 110 or more, there is hope that we can extend our life expectancy by modeling the commonalties they share.

If these are the qualities that are typical of the 100+ survivors, then they must surely give us some clues as to how we, who have not yet reached that extraordinary age, can best increase our chance of getting there.