5 Secrets to Aging Well

How to be happier and healthier for the rest of your life

By Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com senior editor

We'd all like to make it to 100 -- but let's face it, some people age a lot more gracefully than others. What's the difference between someone who looks and feels vibrant in midlife and beyond -- and someone who's sick, sad, and already old?

Scientists are turning up some surprising key factors: approaches to attitude and lifestyle that not only add years to your life but add a better quality of life to your years.

"Studies on successful aging have shown that only one third of what predicts how well we age is controlled by genetics. About two thirds is based on our personal lifestyle choices -- and is therefore under our control," says psychiatrist Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Agingand author of The Longevity Bible (Hyperion).

Here are five longevity factors you can do something about.

Why Do Some People Live 100 Years Or More

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Live 100 Or More Years to be dangerous? Let's see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Live 100 Or More Years experts.

Think about what you've read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Live 100 Or More Years? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

Why Do Some People Live 100 Or More Years?
By Sharon Moore

There are lots of studies going on around the world trying to answer this question. Centenarian studies so far have not revealed any particular "thing" these old timers have in common.

Some centenarians are sweet, some are cranky. Some drink and smoke, some don't. Some exercise regularly, some are proverbial couch potatoes. Some have high cholesterol, some low, and some in the middle.