Dan Buettner's Article, Some Secrets To Longevity

Can you really live to be one hundred years old? Dan Buettner believes there are societies out there where people consistently live to be one hundred years of age due largely, if not solely, to their lifestyles. Buettner highlights that although the Danish Twin Study determined that approximately ten percent of an average person’s life expectancy is attributed to genetics/biological factors, upwards of ninety percent is attributed to a person or society’s respective lifestyle (Buettner, 2010). Can a lifestyle hold so much sway over genetics, biological factors or family health history when determining the odds of attaining the magical mark of living for an entire century? Various government studies attempt to define variables used to project an average citizen’s life
The comparison used here is when one copies an Eagles album, which is perpetually copied by friends and the quality of the copy degrades with each turnover (Buettner,
2010). This comparison is quite unfortunate as any Eagles album already begins its life with degraded quality. In her article, Some Secrets to Longevity, Judy Rakowsky observes that
“medical treatment of older people also needs to change because the elderly contract multiple diseases” and this is to include mental diseases such as dementia (2014). This can be a very painful experience for anyone whose lives have been touched by a loved one who has suffered from some form of dementia. To watch a parent or grandparent slowly reverse their mental age leaves a very empty and helpless feeling for all involved. Buettner offers that the life capacity of the human body is approximately ninety years, but “the life expectancy in this country is seventy-eight” (Buettner,2010). It is interesting that he continues to suggest that the difference of what the human body’s capacity and the average age in the United States can be accounted for and recovered in such a way that those years would quite healthy and void of chronic