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Thomas Perls 'Takes Five'
6 ways to go the distance to centenarian
Posted: Oct. 3, 2006
Thomas Perls is an expert on aging, specifically on the lives and times of those who are 100 and older. There are some 50,000 centenarians in America, and more are on the way as baby boomers move closer to retirement. Perls, 46, associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston Medical Center, is among the authors of a groundbreaking study of centenarians, "Living to 100, Lessons in Maximizing Your Potential At Any Age." He will speak Oct. 11 at the Italian Community Center. His keynote address is part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Health Science lecture series "Critical Knowledge in Health Care." Perls spoke with Journal Sentinel reporter Bill Glauber.
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Takes Five

Thomas Perls
Q. The first question is an easy one. How can we live to be 100?
A. Six things actually, and they conform to an acronym I've put together: A-G-E-I-N-G.
A is for attitude, having an attitude that makes you both optimistic about your aging as well as the ability to manage your stress well.
G is genetics. Take a look at the longevity in your family. If people are passing away in their 90s and older, that is very good news. On the other hand, if people pass away in their 60s and 70s, alarm bells are ringing.
E is exercise. It's important as we get older not just to do regular exercise but to emphasize strength training. That is less strenuous on the body, but the impact is even better.
I is for interest. Not just exercising your muscles but exercising your brain, doing things novel and complex, perhaps leads to delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease and memory loss.
N is nutrition, and mostly that is around having a diet to maintain a healthy weight.
G is certainly get rid of the smoking and anti-aging quackery. You absolutely cannot smoke cigarettes. The other is . . . not falling for all the hucksterism on the Web about things that are purported to stop aging.
Q. Is there an outer age limit that the human species cannot pass and, if so, why?
A. I think the oldest person ever, which defines the human life span, Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 in 1997. She defines what the human life span is. Could someone live slightly older than that? I suspect in the next 30 to 40 years, we might see an individual live a few years longer.
Q. What triggered your interest in the study of centenarians?
A. I'm a geriatrician, so it was in . . . my geriatrics fellowships that I had the opportunity to take care of a couple of centenarians who were in exceptionally good shape, which really opened my eyes that there is a group of people who age quite differently than the rest of us.
Q. You've been a stern opponent of the use of human growth hormone as an anti-aging aid. Why?
A. There is a lot of evidence to show that growth hormone is bad for you and may well accelerate aging rather than decelerate.
Q. On the web site www.livingto100.com, there is a life expectancy calculator. How did you rate and have you made plans yet for how and where you'll celebrate your 100th birthday?
A. I'm 96 is my latest calculation. And where (I would be at 100) would be as a retired physician for the Indian Health Service in the southwestern United States. I'm a big believer in doing something totally different when I'm around age 60, when I'm shooting for a second career.