In this episode, I’m diving into some fascinating research and sharing my own opinions for a fun, insightful show about longevity and living to 100 years old. It is amazing to think there are 722,000 centenarians alive today, but only 219 people who’ve made it to 110. I think genes affect your potential to live to 110, but most of us should form the empowering belief that we can sail to 100, if we just get out of our own way. Reference my previous show, Longevity Science is Wrong—Don’t Succumb to BS Commentary and Self-Limiting Beliefs.

In this episode, I explore how lifestyle factors like staying active, managing stress, and keeping a positive mindset are key to longevity. We’ll also touch on the surprising traits that many centenarians share—things like emotional awareness and optimism—and how they contribute to a longer, healthier life.

So, join me as I unpack some longevity stats and challenge you to embrace the belief that living a long life is within your control. Oh, and stay tuned for a fun surprise at the end—a little freestyle rap from my 60th birthday party earlier this year!

TIMESTAMPS:

The United States is rate4d 35th in world ranking in longevity statistics. {00:54]

For the first time in recorded history, those of us in the younger generation have a lower life expectancy than that of our parents. [02:45]

Surprisingly, according to the UN there are 722,000 people in the world right now who are over the age of 100. There are more women than men in that bunch. [07:06]

Does genetics play a role in life expectancy statistics? [10:21]

There are three kinds of resilience that are connected to longevity: cognitive resilience, economic resilience, and personal resilience. [17:11]

Loneliness is a huge factor in all age groups. [21:48]

Your heart and lungs working well will help mental acuity. Dementia statistics show 50% have symptoms. Walk your way into better brain health. [28:05]

Lifestyle studies have shown centenarians tend to share personality traits: a positive attitude and emotional awareness. [34:07]

If you think you have genetic predisposition for something that you can prevent, then you don’t have to follow that history.  [39:37]

To stay youthful, you gotta do things right. [43:28]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• BradNutrition.com
• B.rad Whey Protein Superfuel – The BEST Protein on the Planet!
• Brad’s Shopping Page
• BornToWalkBook.com
• Podcast with 107-year-old barber
• Anthony Mancinelli
• Podcast with Dr. Judson Brandeis
• Harvard study: Get your heart pumping
• Podcast with Thais Gibson
• Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
• The Primal Blueprint
• Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation

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TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast, where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life without taking ourselves too seriously. I’m Brad Kearns, New York Times bestselling author, former number three world ranked professional triathlete and Guinness World Record Masters athlete. I connect with experts in diet, fitness, and personal growth, and deliver short breather shows where you get simple actionable tips to improve your life right away. Let’s explore beyond the hype hacks, shortcuts, and science talk to laugh, have fun and appreciate the journey. It’s time to B.rad.

Brad (00:38):
If you’re harboring a cynical attitude about longevity, like, Hey, why should I live that long? Climate change is gonna wipe us out anyway. Those seem like cutesy, throwaway lines, but they might have deep significance. And I urge you to,

Brad (00:54):
Hey, let’s do a show about some of my favorite people. That’s right, centenarians. Hopefully you heard my recent show talking about how the longevity statistics that were fed are BS and how I want all of you listening to form the mindset, form the belief that you can sail to 100 if you just get out of your own way, rather than succumb to these actuarial tables showing the pathetic rate of accelerated disease and demise that has become the norm today, especially here as I record from the most developed, most advanced, most medically sophisticated and wealthiest nation on the planet, United States of America, and our pathetic longevity statistics, which I believe recently ranked 35th on the world rankings right behind Costa Rica.

Brad (01:47):
And, uh, pretty, pretty funny that were that far down the list with all the advantages supposedly that we have here. But of course, we also have a tremendous amount of disadvantages from hectic, high stress, modern lifestyle, and all the conveniences and comforts and indulgences that we engage in that are in direct conflict with our genetic expectations for health, as we’ve been talking about for almost two decades, with The Primal Blueprint message and the ancestral health movement. So some people are doing it right, and they’re walking around with a century under their belt. There was an interesting article about them on a website called interesting facts.com. The article was sent to me by a pretty soon to be centenarian, my 87-year-old mother who’s doing great. And right around the corner should be no problem for her. And there’s a bunch of insights and commentary and statistics on the article.

Brad (02:45):
So what I’m gonna do is kind of take you through it. Don’t worry if it gets boring. We’re gonna end with a freestyle wrap, uh, direct from Brad Kearn’s 60th birthday party. So that should be fun. But I want some of these takeaway insights and some reflections that hopefully will help us stay motivated, inspired, and focused. So the article starts out, uh, talking about how, uh, people are living longer than ever before. And that might be true with the outliers of the centenarians, but we’re also seeing disturbingly for the first time in recorded history life expectancy has actually taken a little dip such that my children, those of us in the younger generation, have a lower life expectancy than their parents for the first time in recorded history. Yeah. So we can celebrate and pat ourselves on the back and see the fascination with people that are living longer and all the medical interventions that are keeping people alive longer.

Brad (03:45):
I’m thinking of a quote from Dr. Doug McGuff in the book Primal Prescription, where he describes how the increasing rate of type two diabetes these days if continuing at this accelerated pace where we already have 118 million pre-diabetic or diabetic folks in the United States, that’s about a third of the United States is qualified as pre-diabetic or diabetic. If the rates continue at this pace, the caring for type two diabetes alone, no other disease, just focusing on type two diabetes, caring for the disease, is on track to bankrupt the United States Treasury in 2060. Because we have the great ability to care for diabetics for a very long time. However, it’s very expensive. What can we do about it? Yeah, we can take, take charge, clean up our act in life and get away from that disturbing statistic where a third of us are in huge trouble with metabolic health and headed for disease and suffering and pain and accelerated demise.

Brad (04:53):
Okay? So that’s the sobering thought. But we also have some interesting, uh, dynamics here where a lot of people are getting to the century mark. In 1900, the global average life expectancy was just 32 years old in 2024, it’s 73.33. That’s global average life expectancy. And before I go on, just as an interesting tidbit, think about that. In 1900, the global average life expectancy was just 32 years old. That’s the year my grandfather was born. So I can touch and feel my grandfather’s gone now, of course. But that close of a connection, my mother’s father, the one who sent me the article when her dad was born, life expectancy was 32. That is the same as the often disparaging quip about caveman, because 10,000 years ago, human life expectancy was around the same 32 years old. And that was a stat that was colored disastrously with the extremely high rates of infant mortality, as well as the high chance of demise from even a routine mishap.

Brad (06:03):
So, for example, back in caveman times, you fall, you scrape your knee on a rock, it gets infected and you die. So that’s pretty pathetic to realize that even as, uh, recently as 1900 humans were only expected to live for 32 years. Now, keep in mind, that was before the advent of modern medicine and sanitation in hospitals. Even the high rate of infant mortality was corrected soon after the turn of the century because people discovered how important it was to wash your hands before delivering babies, and all that kind of stuff. So it’s just, uh, next time you hear a dis disparaging comment about how we shouldn’t bother honoring the lifestyle behaviors of our ancestors because they only live to be around 32. Same with your grandfather or your great-grandfather. Whew. And the skyrocketing life expectancy has been strongly driven by, uh, medical intervention, uh, sanitation, uh, things of that nature.

Brad (07:06):
Okay? So that’s how we got up to 73.33. So when life expectancy today is 73, that means we have an increasing number of centenarians according to the United Nations. They’re an estimated 722,000 people right now across the globe who are over a hundred. That’s a stunningly high number. I wouldn’t have guessed that. And I ask most people this question, and they don’t come anywhere close. Most people say, I don’t know, a hundred thousand, which seems like a lot too. 722,000. So that’s the size of fricking San Diego or Baltimore or Philadelphia, some big city. I’m probably pretty close. Miami, of people on the globe who are over a hundred, the number is expected to continue rising. And the prediction in 2054 is that there’s gonna be 4 million people on the planet alive, over a hundred. How are they doing it?

Brad (08:05):
Let’s look at some of the insights and attributes. Here’s one that’s pretty wild. Women are 78%, at least in the United States. 78% of the people over a hundred are women. Now, they only count for 0.03% of the population. Of course, that’s gonna rise to one 10th of 1% by 2054. So one in a thousand people right now, it’s, what’s 0.03% would be three in 10,000. So not looking that great when you put it that way. Uh, but the stunning inside is that 78% are women. Why are women out living men? There’s been a, a lot of talk about this over the years. Uh, there’s some general insight that women age more solely than men. They have a delayed onset of the ma major killers like cardiovascular disease and stroke. I think throughout, um, previous generations where we had these more traditional roles where the men went and toiled all day in the factory while the women were fussing about the home and maybe having less physical as well as psychoemotional stress from those quaint little, uh, lifestyle patterns that occurred back when, but of course, are affecting all the longevity stats.

Brad (09:22):
’cause we’re talking about people that are now in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. So it was their lifestyle, not how cool and slick and evolved modern life is where women are in the workplace dealing with the same sort of traffic jams and mean bosses that men have had to deal with over the decades. So, I predict that, uh, this possible, that this stat could normalize in coming years, whereby your gender is not a huge determinant of your longevity potential, either positively or negatively. That’s just me talking from an opinionated manner. But I don’t think women are magically built to live longer than men. I think men have gotten in their own way worse than women in previous decades and generations. Then here’s some important comments, such as women also tend to be more risk averse than men, so they might be less likely to engage in smoking excessive alcohol drinking, using recreational drugs.

Brad (10:21):
And I’m adding this here. It’s not mentioned in the article, but trying to clear, uh, long distance jumps on their BMX bikes. As you see the dudes on Instagram going for the Instagram shot, they’re almost always dudes jumping across the canyon and making the landing and whoop whooping. Same with doing their stuff on their snowboard, jumping over the tree or over the bus <laugh>. So that probably does influence those life expectancy statistics that outta control male aggressive dopamine seeking energy, jumping out of airplanes, and all that kind of fun stuff. Okay? So, this is what I’ve talked about too with the on the previous show that genetics play a bigger role than lifestyle for centenarians. I dislike that headline from this article or that section head. But what I am saying here, and I’ll read, uh, their details, but once you get to a hundred, so I want everyone to make the assumption that we should be able to sail to a hundred, uh, by getting out of our own way.

Brad (11:20):
Almost all of us have that potential. You wanna argue that and talk about how your family tree has a whole bunch of people that left the planet early. But we’re gonna have to point to adverse lifestyle practices as the driving factor, except for that very narrow sliver of people with really unfortunate genetic diseases, things that, uh, are not related to lifestyle practices that, uh, can adversely affect longevity. But I think for most of us, regardless of how old your great-grandfather, grandfather, and parents lived, you can do things your way and skate out to way beyond the pathetic actuarial charts that show us dropping like flies when we get to 78 or 83 or 88 or what have you. Now, some scientists believe that lifestyle factors play an important role. Well, I mean, everyone believes that lifestyle factors play a huge role in shaping our lifespan until we’re in our seventies.

Brad (12:19):
But as we age into our eighties and beyond, scientists believe that genetics start to play a larger part in our health and longevity. Okay? I’m gonna, I’m gonna buy into that. In other words you maybe hope to have some lucky genes that’ll get you a long way. And if you do look in your family tree and you can cite examples of extreme longevity that’s probably something that’s in your favor, and it’s very likely to be legit. So I’m talking about my mother. Her aunt lived to 103, another aunt lived to 98. And those are big numbers that are probably, in the favor of those of us in the family, right? But again, <laugh>, there’s also name any family with a whole bunch of you know, big timers. There’s also a bunch of people that left early due to adverse lifestyle practices.

Brad (13:13):
Okay? The study of longevity genes is still developing, but genome sequencing studies have identified certain gene variants that can influence lifespan. Among those are ones that support the functioning and maintenance of the body cells. They’re linked to things like lipid levels, inflammation, cardiovascular immune systems. Okay, that’s great. So there’s some gene variants that science has discovered that can influence your longevity in a positive way. And I am going to embrace this stuff when it comes to your, once you get to a hundred, then we’re gonna sit in a room, we’re gonna sit in a conference room, we’re gonna spit into the tube, and we’re gonna test those gene variants. And we’re gonna say, wow, you have seven copies of the A, B, C-D-E-F-G longevity gene, so you have a better chance of living to 110 than the person next to you who’s probably only gonna make it to 103.

Brad (14:06):
And I’m kind of being blusters here. But I really think that’s the main relevance of these genetic variants that influence longevity and he’s health span. It’s extending you out to the very, very limit. So these people that you read about in the news articles, or you can look ’em up, um, the Guinness World Record List, the guy from Austin, Texas who recently died, and I think he made it to 113, and he was smoking his cigar every day and having his alcohol in the evening. And all those wives tales that we hear about the longevity record holders, yeah, they had some incredibly lucky genes, but I don’t think it’s very relevant overall in the big picture to most of us. And even if you have pretty unimpressive longevity statistics in your family tree, you can take matters into your own hands and strive to skate to a hundred.

Brad (15:04):
But again, that a hundred to 110 thing is really interesting to me, and I look forward to reading and learning more about that because, let’s see. I’m not sure if it’s mentioned here in this article, but I did read this from another source that while we have 722,000 centenarians worldwide now, and projected to be 4 million by 2054 with 722,000 walking around now, guess how many people are over 110 right now in the world? What I read was 219 ho ho, that’s not very good record from 722,000 at the starting line. And there’s a 10 year race, and only 219 have made it to 110. So I’m thinking that the human is more or less in modern times built to last around a hundred years. And then you can pretty much expect that you’re gonna be wrapping things up unless you have these magnificent outlying genes, which are pretty much quite rare.

Brad (16:06):
So I wanna want all of us to focus on sailing to 110, and then as we hear from a lot of the today’s leaders in progressive health and biohacking, yeah, maybe there will be some stuff over the next 10, 15, 20 years where they really can make a difference in longevity through, uh, modern scientific pharmaceutical medical dietary intervention. But I’m not holding my breath on any of that stuff, and I certainly haven’t seen anything incredibly impressive to bowl me over right now that we should be doing in order to access this amazing portal to longevity. I think almost all of its nonsense, especially when it comes to things that we’re talking about that are in a bottle or that, you know, are very expensive to purchase and apply or ingest into your body. Forget that nonsense. Let’s go for the big ticket items, the low hanging fruit, as Dr. Peter Atia says. And if he’s saying that, and he’s the big longevity expert, we gotta focus on low hanging fruit for now. Okay?

Brad (17:01):
Here’s some attributes where they’re talking about what they see amongst today’s centenarians. .Centenarians often seem to be remarkably resilient with regard to their health, which can be attributed to both lifestyle and genetics. There’s three kinds of resilience that are connected to longevity, cognitive resilience, economic resilience, and personal resilience. The key factors include strong intellectual function, economic and social support, and a robust personality. These are essential for maintaining the quality of life that contributes to longevity. Researchers are interested in better understanding how the oldest members of society maintain their resilience in these areas, in the hopes that the answers may help improve the health and longevity of the population at large. Well, duh, when it comes to economic resilience, it certainly does help to have a, uh, a foundation, a safety net, a social security check coming in so that you’re not destitute in your older years.

Brad (18:09):
Otherwise, of course, that’s gonna disastrously affect your longevity. And they also mentioned the, um, social support. So economic and social support. The government is offering social support in just about every country, right? With social security and looking after the elderly. And then we have ways that the family and the community can form a safety net, especially around the most elderly who probably need a lot of help, right? They might need transportation to go anywhere, do anything. They might even need assistance to get through their basic daily chores. But there’s also a fascinating amount of these people that are completely independent, and we don’t have to form these beliefs that, gee, when I turn 90, I better live close to my kid because I’m probably not gonna be able to drive, and I’ll probably need a walker and I’ll probably need someone to feed me food with a spoon into my mouth.

Brad (19:05):
That that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Uh, please go back into my archives and search for the podcast episode that I did with Anthony Mancinelli, the world’s oldest barber at the time of the haircut that I received from him. He was 107 years old, practicing his craft for, I think he’d been a barber for 94 years or something like that. He started when he was 13, and he was still cutting hair, and I was able to interview him during our haircut, just turning on my phone. It was wonderful experience. I was able to ask him about his longevity secrets. And of course, he had some good one-liners because he’s been getting plenty of media attention as he got older and older. He says, yeah, my secret is I eat skinny pasta, so I don’t gain weight and stuff like that.

Brad (19:57):
But I asked him questions like so he was a little bit hard of hearing, so I’d be like so Mr. Manganelli, uh, how do you get to work every day? And he looked at me with the strange look on his face, and he says, well, I, I drive, of course, <laugh>. So this guy was completely self-sufficient. I think he reported that he had some children of his checking in on him on a regular basis. And then you’re thinking, oh, isn’t that cute? His child comes in and looks after him, and I’m like, how old are your kids? And he’s like, 84, 82, 79 <laugh>. So here comes an 82-year-old to go and do his daily duties of looking in on his father. Oh my gosh, what an amazing treat to get, to get a haircut from him. And I believe he passed a couple years after I saw him.

Brad (20:46):
So he was 111, 112. I’ll correct that in the show notes when we look it up. But, yeah, he was out there doing his thing. So there was plenty of community support whereby he had a place to work, and he was busting 40 hours a week, and that was making him feel young at heart and surrounding himself with people who were also working, and of course, were decades younger than him. So the key factors to maintain these resilience in three areas, cognitive, economic, and personal, were being mixed in with society. And, especially avoiding these huge risk factors and things that compromise longevity, which a lot of experts are saying today is loneliness. And this has been a recent dynamic change in society and culture, especially in the developed nations where we have this, high tech intervention in the last 10 or 20 years where people are now able to isolate themselves to the extreme.

Brad (21:48):
Especially in United States, there’s no sort of, um, cultural fabric where the extended family lives in the same home might like, there are in many other cultures, uh, Asian cultures, I, I know Mexican culture, Latin American culture. Um, it’s pretty commonplace to have, uh, you know, a grandpa or great grandpa shuffling around like it’s no big deal. But we’re able to with our economic affluence and freedoms and ability to branch out, people are moving all over different areas in pursuit of, uh, career goals and things like that. So families are getting, fractured in the geographic sense. And these are all things that contribute to the potential for loneliness. Of course, we focus on seniors and how seniors can get shut in and not have enough social interaction. But I’m also gonna contend that this goes across all age groups.

Brad (22:42):
So, we see, you know, middle school and high school kids, unlike generations past, being more isolated and perhaps they get picked up from carpool instead of walk or whatever they did, where they mixed with more kids, shuttled home and then, uh, in with their devices for the rest of the day, rather than running around and goofing around outside and having more natural or consequential social opportunities. Today, everything’s so structured and organized that even the adolescents are getting isolated. Even in college, uh, I think campus life, uh, seems to be a little different than it was where, um, we didn’t have the, the digital intervention. So we would have to have study groups or talk things through, or sit around and, uh, entertain ourselves at the dining hall because there was no digital stimulation and entertainment to connect with.

Brad (23:40):
So we’d linger around and just have actual face-to-face social interaction. I’m gonna contend that that’s probably getting compromised today, although I haven’t been in a college dorm dining hall in a while. Uh, this is kind of what we see or what we hear about. And then of course, even in the busiest years where perhaps you’re in your family, child rearing years, and you have a busy schedule, and you have soccer practice on Tuesdays, and you have piano on Wednesdays, and your weekend is jam packed full, uh, however, um, this busy schedule can also lead to loneliness and isolation, where the busyness and the hectic nature of one’s daily life can come at the expense of, for example, the boys night out on Tuesday night, bowling league and the girls night out for book club or wine tasting, um, a couple’s date night, and all these things that, uh, help to create connection rather than loneliness.

Brad (24:36):
But yeah, I’m thinking of like my mom who sent me the article and is doing the show notes here. You’re getting a plug, Gail. She recently moved to senior living community from her home of many decades. And we were touring the facility with my son, who’s just outta college age. And he says, wow, this place is just like the college dorms where they have the community dining hall, and everyone lives in close quarters and walks around the campus, which is the term they use as well. And he goes, this is how everyone should live at every age. And I thought it was such a beautiful comment, because think about it, even, you know, when we’re dreaming of having a big, huge house inside a gate and having the space and living on this many acres or whatever the, um, the American dream is, is pushing us toward, there’s a lot to be said for this communal living opportunities where you have natural opportunities for social interaction and you’re in amongst your peers in the case of college, or in the case of senior living.

Brad (25:39):
Really important and really, uh, potentially beneficial in many ways for a mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health. All right, here’s another insight from the article. 25% of centenarians retain their cognitive health. Are they saying this as, as a positive? Because that’s kind of a bummer. 25%, eh, let’s hear about it. Let’s figure this out. Not everyone who lives to a hundred maintains their cognitive health, but because cognitive resilience was one of those attributes, it definitely contributes to quality of life, and it supports longevity. Studies indicate that 50% of centenarians have some clear symptoms of dementia. 25% show some signs of cognitive impairment, and the remaining 25% are considered cognitively healthy. Okay, I feel better about that stat because the 25% that shows some signs of cognitive impairment, <laugh>, I’d say 25% of all of us of any age show some time some signs of cognitive impairment.

Brad (26:49):
How many places have you left your phone behind in the last couple years? Let me think. I dropped it off a ski lift, it fell outta my pocket at the airport last month. It got stolen and never returned. Yeah, so not all of us are, I’d say, free and clear from, uh, the impairment, and by the term impairment, I’m gonna say, an overstimulated- hyperconnected lifestyle that leaves us with short attention spans, and even in more extreme cases jittery, anxious, and all these adverse effects, adverse consequences of high tech, hectic, fast-paced, high stress, modern life, where we’re forced to multitask and thereby diminish our cognitive function. So, Brad’s gonna editorialize here and say, yeah, cognitive impairment, raise your hand if you’re skating free from that. ’cause I see it everywhere in every interaction. Especially with people, you know, not able to hold the thought or hold a conversation because there’s too much there’s too much training toward instant gratification, distraction, and a, a constant, uh, fresh and novel stimulation.

Brad (28:05):
Okay, back to the, back to the stats here. So, if 50% have clear symptoms of dementia I guess that’s, uh, gonna be expected because they’re probably at the end of their physical lifespan also, right? They might hit that hundred a hundredth birthday milestone, blow out the candle, but the body and the mind are failing at the same rate. And, what else can you expect at that point? So, uh, that’s not terribly distressing to know because, um, I’d say there’s a bigger percentage of centenarians that have, that are falling short on their physical capabilities, right? How many of that 722,000 people are celebrating their birthdays in a wheelchair or a walker or what have you? But what’s fascinating, a pullout here is that 25% are sharp, cognitively healthy. My friend Pat Herson, who’s 97 and is completely cognitively sharp, fantastic.

Brad (29:03):
It’s possible. And it doesn’t mean that these people are gonna be going and running 5Ks or heading to the next CrossFit workout, but the mind can remain sharp. But of course, the mind and the body go hand in hand. And I think, um, what’s surprising to me is that these are kind of, uh, new emerging fields of medicine where people are, uh, realizing that staying fit and healthy and active helps your brain function and helps prevent dementia and cognitive decline. No Shit!!. What, what were we thinking? That the brain was just living inside a skull separate from the body. Of course, we know that brain neurons are the most sensitive cells in the body to getting sufficient oxygen and blood flow. The new term for dementia or cognitive decline from Dr. De La Monte at Brown University is type three diabetes, type three diabetes.

Brad (30:02):
That is, that Alzheimer’s dementia is characterized, the disease condition is characterized by dysfunctional glucose metabolism in the brain, which is also the definition of diabetes in the body, right? So it’s kind of like diabetes, let’s say. Perhaps it starts in your liver, right? Where the insulin and the pancreas are getting overwhelmed and overstressed. And then really, like we use the terminology with cancer, it spreads to the brain. So diabetes spreads to the brain. This reminds me of my interview with Dr. Judson Brandeis, the urologist and male sexual wellness expert, where he was talking about how erectile dysfunction is a 10 year red flag for cardiovascular disease. So if you have some blood flow and vascularity deficiencies in your male equipment in 10 years, that’s going to spread to the cardiovascular system. The smaller blood vessels, of course, are more sensitive and more, uh, prone to dysfunction first.

Brad (31:11):
And then finally the bigger arteries also have trouble with blood circulation down the line. I think the same principle applies to the brain where if you get into adverse metabolic health in the realm of type two diabetes, it is going to affect your brain health, and you’re going to develop cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s patterns, not from bad luck, which is, I think, how the lay person is now looking at these diseases of cognitive decline. We think of the brain as a separate organ <laugh> riding separately from the heart and lungs and the muscles in the body, and whether we’re working out or whether we’re fit or not, and we’re crossing our fingers. And then, oh, don’t forget to do your Sudoku puzzles. So this is not a Sudoku strategy toward, uh, cognitive health. This is get your butt into the gym, get your heart and lungs working, the blood pumping your muscles building.

Brad (32:08):
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, I love her message about muscle centric medicine, where this is going to be the centerpiece of health, longevity, and health span. We have great research that sprinting prompts the production of brain derived neurotropic factor BDNF, Dr. Ratey at Harvard calls BDNF, quote, miracle grow for the brain because it helps build new neurons and improve neuroplasticity. That means, flexibility with your thinking and being able to learn new things and pick up a new language or learn an instrument even when you’re 97 or 92 or 87 or whatever. Extensive daily walking also builds brain derived neurotropic factor. There was a very prominent UCLA study showing that, uh, the group that walked fewer than 4,000 steps per day had smaller hippo campi and less skilled at memory consolidation and general short-term and long-term memory than the other group who walked more than 4,000 steps at a day.

Brad (33:15):
So you are walking your way to better brain health, not just physical health. Now we’re gonna get into some of the personality and attitude things that are so, uh, interesting to me, especially as I encourage you to form new empowering beliefs that you are going to sail to 100 without much trouble if you just get out of your own way. And believe that deeply in your heart right now as you’re listening to the show, rather than whatever self-limiting and wisecrack beliefs that we usually offer up, like, hey, you know, live hard, play hard, and, uh, and, and, uh, go when it’s your time or whatever nonsense that people like to spit out when they talk about why they’re gonna have a third helping of dessert, rather than just hold back a little bit in the name of Health <laugh>.

Brad (34:07):
Okay? The subhead says, many centenarians share two specific traits. Despite differences in lifestyle studies have shown centenarians tend to share two specific personality traits, a positive attitude and a high degree of emotional awareness. Oh, there goes my chances, <laugh>, just kidding. I’m working on that emotional awareness people. But, uh, like that wonderful show I had with Thais Gibson, where she described how the definition of self-sabotage is when your stated goals and dreams are in conflict with your behaviors. And if you’re not aware of that, whew, then you’re in big trouble, right? You’re just feeling sorry for yourself because you haven’t developed the body of your dreams, but you prefer to reach for pints of Ben and Jerry’s, rather than attend workout classes at the gym. That’s when we have that lack of emotional awareness that you’re creating pain and suffering.

Brad (35:05):
Like my other podcast guest that, um, what was his name? He had 50 different dates, and he wrote a book about it. Jonathan, a long time ago, sorry, but he said, yeah, he had 50, he dated 50 different women. He wrote about the experience. Obviously none of them worked out. And, he said, you know what? They all had one thing in common, and you wanna know what that was. I don’t know. They were, uh, short-tempered. What, what, what he goes, they all dated me <laugh>. In other words, none of them worked out. And he was the common denominator amongst all 50. That’s when he started to turning, turn the lens on himself and try to figure out, you know, increase his emotional awareness of how does he show up in relationships? Why don’t things work out?

Brad (35:55):
Why is he choosing, in a pattern of choosing, the wrong type of person? You know, a, a relationship that’s doomed to failure. You always go after the bad boy or the wild girl, or whatever that is that your programming is calling you toward. But because of your lack of emotional awareness, you indulge in frequent pain and suffering. So the people who make it all the way to the finish line, the long distance that the endurance athletes here have a positive attitude and high emotional awareness. Love that. In the studies, many centenarians describe themselves as being optimistic, easygoing, extroverted, and often mentioned laughter as essential to their lives. These are qualities that reduce anxiety and depression and contribute to good overall mental health. Many centenarians also report not being, oh, they also report being comfortable with openly expressing their emotions, which helps maintain healthy relationships and contributes to our overall wellbeing.

Brad (36:53):
That said, researchers continue to study whether these traits directly contribute to longevity or whether they may simply be a byproduct of living longer. I have no idea what that means. <laugh>, of course it must be contributing to their longevity ’cause they’re common traits. And guess who will support me with this assertion? That’s right. The famous MINDBODY guru medical doctor and EastWest Blender, Dr. Deepak Chopra. Uh, I love this guy’s work. I saw him at a live presentation many decades ago, and it was life changing. Guy is just so amazing. And one of his first books, the bestselling book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, which was published I think in the nineties. He had some really interesting, longevity research in there and how important mindset is, and he contended that the single most prominent shared attribute among centenarians across the globe, it wasn’t diet.

Brad (37:52):
It wasn’t their, it wasn’t their plant-based diet. It wasn’t their huge bulging muscles because they all worked out so much. It was that they had a youthful spirit. That was the number one longevity attribute. This came long before the propaganda research that we’re getting shoved down our throat these days with movements like the Blue Zones, where they’re touting a plant-based diet and other such things that are deeply flawed and deeply misinterpreting the scientific research. Although there are some good things coming outta the blue zones, like, uh, the importance of a walking oriented, movement oriented lifestyle as a top, top attribute for living a long time with excellent health span. But I love Deepak’s contention there, that youthful spirit is number one. And if I recall, there was an interview with a lady in her garden in the Caucasus mountains of Russia, that’s one of the longevity pockets mentioned in Deepak’s book.

Brad (38:46):
And she was supposedly 112 or some advanced age, and she was down in her hands and knees digging up, uh, and planting plants or whatever. And the researcher, uh, the journalist asked her well, don’t you, shouldn’t you get some help, uh, working on your garden there, <laugh>? And the person said, no, because it’s my garden <laugh>. Oh, I love those spicy answers. Just like Anthony telling me, how does he get to work? Of course, I drive to work. How else would I get to work? Anyway, uh, so I really want to emphasize mindset. We’ve talked a lot about healthy eating and exercise and all those great attributes and stress management. But if you, if you believe you’re gonna sail to a hundred, I believe that that increases your chances. That’s two beliefs in the same sentence. That’s a lot of beliefs I’m asking you to believe in.

Brad (39:37):
But if you don’t, I think we gotta unwind that right now. Are you harboring these fixed and rigid beliefs about your familial genetic predispositions? We talked about that at length in the earliest books, The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Blueprint, 21 Day Total Body Transformation. We showed a picture in there in the 21-day book of the, famous twins from Germany, Otto and Aval, their identical twins, and they had pictures of these guys. One was a marathon runner and one was a bodybuilder. So one guy was huge bulging muscles, and the other guy was a skinny little guy, even though they had the same exact genetic coding. And so, whatever your familial genes, whatever you’ve been bestowed, you can do your best to negate, completely negate any adverse effects. For example, perhaps you have the genetic coding or genetic predisposition for lung cancer.

Brad (40:34):
And so if you don’t smoke, that’s gonna be less relevant than if you smoke like all the rest of your family, and everybody gets lung cancer. Oh, isn’t that an interesting, obvious example? Yeah, it’s the same thing for heart disease, diabetes, and all the other things that are the number one and number two killers in modern society. So if you have familial genetic predisposition toward obesity, obesity, heart disease, you can correct course with lifestyle practices whereby if you are not obese and you have good blood markers, then it doesn’t matter what your genetic predispositions are for diabetes. Another obvious example, uh, your genetic predisposition toward alcoholism. Nope, not if you don’t drink, you’re not gonna have any worry about that. Okay? I’ve made my point. And, you know, if you’re, like I said earlier, if you’re harboring a cynical attitude about longevity, like, Hey, why should I live that long?

Brad (41:31):
Climate change is gonna wipe us out anyway. Those seem like cutesy throwaway lines, but they might have deep significance. And I urge you to examine these fixed and rigid beliefs, or even these throwaway, brush-off lines that might be indicative of you, uh, being, uh, a denial or avoidant or something that’s not as healthy as just embracing the idea and the concept that maybe you can skate to a hundred. Oh, you know, another one I hear often is, gee, I don’t wanna live that long because all my friends will be dead and then I’ll be lonely. Well, how about, um, uh, forming the belief that yeah, maybe you’re gonna have to make new friends if you make it to a hundred, and the average life expectancy is only 82. Or you can right now start spreading the magical energy to influence others around you, your peers, right?

Brad (42:26):
So, um, instead of saying, you’re gonna have to make new friends, let’s bring all our friends along and motivate, inspire, encourage them also to sail to a hundred. Hey, that reminds me, that’s what I did at my 60th birthday party when I recited a freestyle rap that had some, some stands as about longevity in the interest of entertaining folks, and also to inspire people. You want to hear some of these lines? I think we should do it. Hold on a second. Let me pull this up. Yeah. Okay. A little tidbit from Brad’s 60th birthday party. And, um, of course, my guests expected nothing less than me crowing about longevity as I hit this milestone birthday. Okay, here we go. Brad, you turned 60. What the F****? you think this doesn’t suck. Since you boast on your podcast about living to 123, we can all celebrate my nearly halfway mark with glee.

Brad (43:28):
After all, longevity research reveals that chronological age is less relevant than biological or psychological age. The 60 is the new 40’s saying has become all the rage, and it’s actually sage for if you can stay strong, active, and energetic and still perform in every way, and then down to the bottom. I say, but to stay youthful, you gotta try to do things right. That’s why I get nine hours of sleep every night, and I’m trying to run my age in the quarter. That’s 400 meters. If I can do that, I’ll be tough to beaters. You see, in the Master’s track and field in the 60 plus division, showing up and finishing is not subject to derision. You could call it a race of attrition. For example, last year I high jumped five one, not terribly high, but took second place in the USA. Oh my.

Brad (44:20):
What’s really cool is the World HighJump record at age 100 plus a future goal of mine is, thus. The record is 0.9 meters or just under three feet. So if I can jump into bed at a hundred, I’ve got the world beat. Thank you so much for listening and watching to this show about centenarians. I look forward to recording one when I turn a hundred. We’ll go back and do some clips, some outtakes from these, from these old shows from 40 years before. If you have any comments, questions, and if you’re over a hundred, please write an email. I’d love to send you a special award. Anyone over a hundred gets a free gift from the B.rad Podcast. Anyone under a hundred who wants to write in and look forward to covering your comments and a future Q and A show. Thanks for listening.

Brad (45:12):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email: podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.