How to Live Forever (Or Almost)



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People living on the Japanese island of Okinawa enjoy exceptionally long and healthy lives. True, it's likely they're genetically blessed — wired to resist inflammation, which can contribute to everything from heart disease and cancer to arthritis and diabetes. Still, they don't rest on their DNA. The Okinawans practice a form of calorie moderation called hara hachi bu, which means, basically, "leave the table when you're 80% full."

Don't panic: That doesn't mean you're going to walk around hungry all day, says Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., a Hawaii-based expert in geriatric medicine and coinvestigator of the study. The Okinawans eat plenty, but unlike many Westerners, they stop before their belts become tourniquets.

Their cultural wisdom is scientifically on target, says Dr. Willcox. When food hits your belly, the stretch receptors in your stomach help relay a message to your brain telling it you're full. But this is no instant message — it takes 20 minutes to arrive. "You actually feel fuller 20 minutes after you put down your fork," says Dr. Willcox. That means if you eat till you're 100% full, you go 20% over capacity at each meal. Worse, because your stomach stretches every time you do this, you'll gradually have to eat more and more to feel satisfied. The Okinawans have taught themselves to wait for the message — hence, they're slim and healthy, even at advanced ages. (Avoiding post-meal bloat isn't the only smart thing the Okinawans do, Dr. Willcox notes. Some of their other life span extenders: a plant-rich diet, regular enjoyable physical activity, and ikigai — which translates to "having a sense that life is worth living.")

PAYOFF: 6 years. Life expectancy for the average Okinawan woman is 87, compared with 81 for the average American


It's hard to argue with more than a million people. That's the number of adults, ages 20 to 102, whose sleep habits a team of British and Italian researchers recently reviewed to determine the best sleep number (that's hours, not a dial on a bed). The scientists found that people who sleep between six and nine hours a night — no less, no more — live longer than those who get fewer or more hours of zzz's. How important are those hours? The sleep-deprived in this analysis were 12% more likely to die within the follow-up period (depending on the study, anywhere from four to 25 years) than those who slept for six to eight hours, an amount the researchers call optimal for health. In most of the studies, this was true no matter what the participants' health problems. More strikingly, "long sleepers," those who regularly got more than nine hours of shut-eye a night, had a 30% greater risk of dying in the follow-up period than those who slept the ideal six to eight.

TIME SPENT: 6 to 8 hours

PAYOFF: A longer life (plus: a trimmer waist and reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure)


In a 10-year study of more than 1,000 people 70 and older, Australian researchers found that those who had a circle of friends outlived folks with the fewest pals by a 22% margin. And apparently blood isn't thicker than water: Having children and a close family network had no effect on participants' longevity.

An even larger analysis, looking at more than 300,000 people from all over the world, found that when it came to life expectancy, the health risk of lack of friends was roughly equivalent to that of smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day and double that of obesity. However, having pals had the same beneficial effect on health as quitting smoking, losing weight, and exercising. "People who had relationships were, on average, 50% more likely to be alive at the end of the study period (an average of 7.5 years)," says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D., a psychologist at Brigham Young University in Utah who analyzed 148 studies for the research. These findings translate to a survival advantage of three to four years for socially connected people, study coauthor Timothy B. Smith, Ph.D., calculates. What's more, "The studies that looked at multiple aspects of relationships, not only how many people are in your social network but the functions they serve — if you have a close confidante, for example — found that participants with such a variety of pals had a 90% increased likelihood of being alive at the end of the study period," says Holt-Lunstad.

PAYOFF: 3 to 4 added years

Next: What you can do to live longer every year

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