Study on aging hopes to answer how we can live, thrive in our 90s

Living to be 100 and being healthy and vibrant when you get there was recently the focus of one of the biggest studies of its kind of the “over 90” crowd.

Researchers first talked to their subjects in 1981. Over 14,000 people in a retirement communities filled out a long questionnaire about everything from their lifestyles to their health histories.

They caught up with 1,600 of the participants who are now between 90 and 100-years-old.

There have been a lot of studies on people in their 60s and 70s but this is the first large study looking at the “oldest of the old.”

Most of them are going strong.

CBS reporter Leslie Stahl talked with some of the study participants, like World War II veteran Sid Shero. He recently had a stroke, but other than a little slurred speech, it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down.

“I’m 92 years old and going strong,” he said.

Shero says he drives a convertible, and it may be in part to get the girls to look at him. “They call it a ‘chick car,'” he said. Shero has a rich social life that includes dating.

That’s one of the things the study found – a rich social life can help you live longer. Things like getting together with friends or playing board games makes a difference.

So does exercise, but according to study author Dr. Claudia Kawas, you don’t want to over do it. As little as 15 minutes a day makes a big difference, but 45 minutes seems to be the ideal amount of time. “Even three hours doesn’t beat 45 minutes,” says Kawas.

Kawas says the physical activity doesn’t have to be all at once, or very strenuous. Fifteen minutes of walking, followed by 15 minutes of gardening later in the day, for example.

If you’re not big on vitamins or eating your greens, participants told Stahl, they’re not too fond of their vegetables either.

They didn’t necessarily watch what they ate, they indulged in dessert, and one woman said she used to have a glass of wine every night before dinner. She still has that glass of wine before her evening meal, but she can’t finish it anymore.

Kawas says when it comes to your weight, gaining a few pounds is actually associated with living longer. And that glass of wine with dinner? It turns out moderate alcohol was associated with living longer than individuals who did not consume alcohol. And while a lot of people seem to say that’s only the case with red wine, through the eyes of the researchers it didn’t seem to matter. A martini, in moderation, was just as beneficial.

Now you know what to do to make it to your 90s. But if you also want to make sure you’ve still got your wits about you, that’s a lot harder.

Ted Rosenbaum, 96, has been married for 63 years and he says he’s got a lot of very precious memories. He’s also suffering from dementia and short-term memory loss – and he knows it.

“My worst condition is my memory,” says Rosenbaum. “Terrible frustration. Terrible, you know, it’s having more and more of a negative impact on me psychologically.”

In addition to answering questions during their twilight years, many of the study participants will also donate their brains to science. Kawas has already secured a federal grant for a follow-up study on dementia and other diseases of the aging brain.