Dan Buettner How To Live To Be 100

A centenarian is a person who has achieved one hundred years of age. “A centenarian”, I was unaware there was a word for living longer than a hundred years until watching the TED Talk video by Dan Buettner entitled: How to live to be 100+. In the talk (Jan “09), Buettner who is a

National Geographic Explorer, explores the topic of longevity and lifestyle. He believes that much of our lifespan is determined by our lifestyle, not genetic factors. Buettner goes on to acknowledge the Danish Twin Study, in which he states that “only about 10 percent of how long the average person lives, within certain biological limits, is dictated by our genes. The other 90 percent is dictated by our lifestyle” (Buettner). Buettner launched his own study about

From inhabitants of the Okinawan Island of Japanese to the Greek island of Ikaria, where people live to

100 or older at much higher-than-average rates. He reports that the Blue Zones is a concept used to identify a geographic and demographic area of the world. Where people live significantly longer lives and remain relatively healthy despite of their ethnic and cultural dissimilarities. According

Buettner, “if we can find the optimal lifestyle of longevity we can come up with a de facto formula for longevity” (Buettner). He suggests that with certain lifestyle changes, a person can live significantly longer, specifically, about 12 years in the United States. Buettner later stated “you need three things if you want to live a long, healthy life: credible information, practical advice and an environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice, or better yet, unavoidable”.

Laurinaitis 2

My community, Thornburg, is an autonomous community in the county of Spotsylvania,

The Commonwealth of Virginia. Thornburg is centered on the intersection of Jefferson Davis

Highway (U.S. 1) with Morris Road and Mudd Tavern Road (RT 606). Spotsylvania County is

Now ask yourself, how is this a good thing or how it is beneficial to us? People are living longer today than ever before. Life expectancies are increasing, and medical innovations are making it possible. If we continue to progress and increase longevity, we also need to figure out how to traverse the costs. Living a longer life likewise means a greater strain on the economy as well as the environment. According to the Social Security Administration, a steady increase in the older population over the age of 65 will put a severe strain on federal programs such as Medicare and

Social Security. To put simply the system as we know it will crumble. Now imagine what this would do with the ecological, social, and economic environment. Brian Bienkowski wrote "As

People Live Longer, Threats to Wildlife Increase “Increased life expectancy means that people live longer and affect the planet longer; each year is another year of carbon footprint, ecological

Laurinaitis 3 footprint, use of natural resources, etc. The magnitude of this impact is increased as more people live longer,”.

In conclusion, I consider this TED talk to be awfully factual and an eye opener. Although