Do you aspire for a long and healthy life of more than 100 years?
If you do, then you have a very positive attitude towards life and towards everything.
If you aspire for a long life, then you are a very optimistic person. Your self-confidence is so high that you can manage anyone and anything in any situation.
Think about a person who is fit and active, but still says that he is not sure whether he can complete even 70 years of life.
What makes that person so pessimistic!
Can such a person inspire anyone?!
In 19th century, that is, 1800s, the world average life expectancy of humans was 28.5 years to 32 years.
In 1900, the world average life expectancy was 31 to 32 years.
In 1950, the world average life expectancy was 45.7 to 48 years.
In 2000, the world average life expectancy was 66.8 years.
And in 2019, the world average life expectancy was 73.4 years
So, you can see that how the world average life expectancy has kept on increasing steadily. That’s why, in many organizations, the retirement age has been increased from 60 years to 65 years, though there is no limit till what age one would like to work. For example, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad got his second term as the Prime Minister of Malaysia at the age of 92 in 2018.
Certainly, better medical care helped humans to live longer but it has not necessarily helped humans to live a healthy life.
Data show that though the life expectancy in 2019 was 73.4 years, but the healthy life expectancy (HALE) in 2019 was 63.7 years.
That means that though better medical care has helped humans to live longer but it has not helped each of the long-living humans to have a healthy life.
The purpose of this article is to convey the message that how one can live a long healthy life and remain fit even at an age over 100.
When you hear about someone like Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who is over 90 but still fit and working, don’t you get inspired?
Better medical care has helped humans to live longer. But to live long and healthy, is something for which humans have to help themselves.
Let us now peep into the lifestyles of some people, who have lived a long healthy life and remained fit in their 100s.
1. Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda is from India. He surprised the officials at the Abu Dhabi Airport, when they found that the year of his birth was written as 1896 in his passport. So, that made him 124 years of age in 2020.
Swami Sivananda believes in living a healthy lifestyle.
He is fit and loves to travel alone.
He exercises every day and prefers having very simple food devoid of any spices.
His healthy lifestyle consisting of healthy habits has linked three centuries, that is, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and should inspire every human on this planet to adopt healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle.
2. Kane Tanaka
Kane Tanaka is from Japan.
She was born on 2nd January, 1903. She turned 118 in 2021.
She credits family, sleep, hope, eating good food and practising mathematics for her longevity.
Kane was supposed to hold the Olympic torch at the 2020 Summer Olympics but pulled out of it because of the rising cases of Covid-19 in Japan.
Though Kane underwent pancreatic cancer surgery at the age of 45 and bowel cancer surgery at the age of 103, her healthy lifestyle consisting of healthy food habits, sleep and healthy thinking habits have kept her healthy and active at 118.
She says she would like to live to the age of 120.
Isn’t it truly an inspiring journey?!
Even after undergoing two cancer surgeries, one can still live a very healthy and active life by living a healthy lifestyle consisting of healthy habits.
3. Fauja Singh
Fauja Singh is a British citizen, who was born on 1st April, 1911 in India. He turned 110 in 2021.
He was an avid amateur runner, but gave it up at the time of partition of India in 1947.
He emigrated to England in the 1990s and currently lives there.
He went through a series of personal setbacks.
He lost his wife in 1992. His eldest daughter died of complications after giving birth. And his fifth son died in an accident in 1994.
All these series of setbacks made him determined to focus on his passion for running and he returned to running in 1995.
In 2011, Fauja Singh became the first 100-year-old to finish a marathon.
In 2012, he carried the Olympic torch.
Fauja Singh attributes his physical fitness and longevity to abstaining from smoking, alcohol, following a simple vegetarian diet and sleeping early with GOD on his mind in order to prevent any negative thoughts crossing his mind.
Hope you have found the life journey of Fauja Singh to be very inspiring, as it conveys the message that, if you are determined to live an extraordinary life, then your age becomes only a number and even the personal setbacks cannot stop you.
We can go on and on with such inspiring stories of thousands of people, who have remained healthy and fit in their 100s by virtue of their healthy lifestyle consisting of healthy habits.
The intention of writing this article is to focus your attention on your lifestyle, which consists of your daily habits.
If your habits are healthy, then you are going to have a healthy lifestyle, which will help you to remain healthy and fit even in your 100s.
As you see in the case of these three centenarians, each of them has advocated for a healthy lifestyle to remain active throughout the life.
Nowadays, you must be seeing advertisements from many companies which try to sell their vitamin tablets, protein-rich supplements and instant-relief cold tablets, etc.
Pause for a moment and think, do you really need these products?!
Why don’t you cultivate habits and live a lifestyle that does not need these products at all!
Please allow me to explain through some examples out of my own experience.
1. Common Cold
You must have experienced common cold, which takes a toll on your body and makes you feel very uncomfortable for 72 hours from the time the symptoms appear.
For many, catching cold is a very normal thing and every now and then they catch cold.
Having some cold medicine can give you instant relief but why not cultivate some habits, which can prevent common cold forever.
I used to catch common cold every now and then, until I met a Doctor who prescribed some good habits instead of some medicines.
Every human has bacteria in his mouth and these bacteria cause common cold, when he does not maintain proper oral hygiene. These bacteria are the most active, when the mouth is shut for long hours during the sleep.
So you need to brush teeth and scrape tongue before you go to sleep at night and need to do the same again immediately after you wake up.
This kind of habit will help you maintain proper oral hygiene in order to keep the bacteria in your mouth under control and prevent common cold.
2. Hair-Fall
You must have come across people complaining of hair-fall.
There are various advertisements for hair-transplantation, protein shakes, etc. to stop hair-fall. But why not cultivate some good habits that you do not reach the stage of having hair-fall.
Dandruff is the main reason for the hair-fall and you would find that people who complain of having hair-fall, do not shampoo their hair for days.
Men, in particular, can clean their hair everyday with a shampoo from a good brand and prevent dandruff in order to promote healthy hair growth and prevent hair-fall.
3. Vitamin-D deficiency
One of my clients told me that, once he fell down after feeling dizzy. The doctor later diagnosed that he had Vitamin-D deficiency.
Vitamin-D deficiency can lead to brittle bones, fatigue or pain in muscles.
You can get vitamin-D supplements, which are readily available in the market, but why not develop a habit of exercising every morning coupled with good amount of exposure to sunlight.
Exposure to sunlight is the best way to get vitamin-D in your body.
Therefore, as you find in these three examples, medicines can give you instant relief from the disease but cannot prevent it. Whereas, cultivating good habits can prevent the disease.
So tell me now, what you want?
‘An instant relief from a disease’ or ‘The prevention of a disease’.
Remember the saying: “Healthy habits will make life easy” and “Unhealthy habits will make life difficult”.
I have always tried my best to live and promote a healthy lifestyle consisting of healthy habits, as I intend to live a long and healthy life of more than 100 years, now it is your turn to do the same.
Join me in this pursuit to thank our centenarians all over the world who have inspired us to live a long healthy life and to inspire the people all around us to live a long healthy life and celebrate every moment of life.
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