Here is the Big Five personality scale with facets that matches the ones mentioned in studies I posted.

http://www.unifr.ch/ztd/HTS/inftest/WEB-Informationssystem/en/4en001/d590668ef5a34f17908121d3edf2d1dc/hb.htm

NEO-PI-R Ÿ NEO Personality Inventory - Revised


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P.T. (Jr.) Costa, R.R. McCrae
Hogrefe Ltd. The Test People, Oxford

Overview

The Test

The NEO PI-R is a measure of the five major domains of personality as well as the six facets that define each domain. Taken together, the five domain scales and thirty facet scales of the NEO PI-R facilitate a comprehensive and detailed assessment of normal adult personality. The NEO PI-R is recognized internationally as a gold standard for personality assessment. Today, reputable developers of personality tests for the occupational market will as a matter of course publish data on the relationship of their tests with the five factor model using one form or another of the NEO as the benchmark. The total amount of recent data from high level academic journals concerning the NEO PI-R underpins its quality.

Description of the scale and characteristics

Neuroticism: identifies individuals who are prone to psychological distress

Anxiety: level of free floating anxiety

Angry Hostility: tendency to experience anger and related states such as frustration and bitterness

Depression: tendency to experience feelings of guilt, sadness, despondency and loneliness

Self Consciousness: shyness or social anxiety

Impulsiveness: tendency to act on cravings and urges rather than reining them in and delaying gratificayion

Vulnerability: general susceptibility to stress

Extraversion: quantity and intensity of energy directed outwards into the social world

Warmth: interest in and friendliness towards others

Gregariousness: preference for the company of others

Assertiveness: social ascendancy and forcefulness of expression

Activity: pace of living

Excitement seeking: need for environmental stimulation

Positive Emotion: tendency to experience positive emotions

Openness to Experience: the active seeking and appreciation of experiences for their own sake

Fantasy: receptivity to the inner world of imagination

Aesthetics: appreciation of art and beauty

Feelings: openness to inner feelings and emotions

Actions: openness to new experiences on a practical level

Ideas: intellectual curiosity

Values: readiness to re-examine own values and those of authority figures

Agreeableness: the kinds of interactions an individual prefers from compassion to tough mindedness

Trust: belief in the sincerity and good intentions of others

Straightforwardness: frankness in expression

Altruism: active concern for the welfare of others

Compliance: response to interpersonal conflict

Modesty: tendency to play down own achievements and be humble.

Tender mindedness: attitude of sympathy for others.

Conscientiousness: degree of organization, persistence, control and motivation in goal directed behaviour

Competence: belief in own self efficacy

Order: personal organization

Dutifulness: emphasis placed on importance of fulfilling moral obligations

Achievement striving: need for personal achievement and sense of direction

Self Discipline: capacity to begin tasks and follow through to completion despite boredom or distractions.

Deliberation: tendency to think things through before acting or speaking.

Facets of Conscientousness and Longevity: High Achievement and Orderliness Strong Predictors of Reduced Mortality

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

1: Health Psychol. 2008 Sep;27(5):505-12

Do conscientious individuals live longer? A quantitative review.
Kern ML, Friedman HS.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA 82521-0426, USA. margaret.kern@email.ucr.edu

OBJECTIVE: Following up on growing evidence that higher levels of conscientiousness are associated with greater health protection, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the association between conscientiousness-related traits and longevity. DESIGN: Using a random-effects analysis model, the authors statistically combined 20 independent samples. In addition, the authors used fixed-effects analyses to examine specific facets of conscientiousness and study characteristics as potential moderators of this relationship. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Effect sizes were computed for each individual sample as the correlation coefficient r, based on the relationship between conscientiousness and mortality risk (all-cause mortality risk, longevity, or length of survival). RESULTS: Higher levels of conscientiousness were significantly and positively related to longevity (r = .11, 95% confidence interval = .05-.17). Associations were strongest for the achievement (persistent, industrious) and order (organized, disciplined) facets of conscientiousness. CONCLUSION: Results strongly support the importance of conscientiousness-related traits to health across the life span. Future research and interventions should consider how individual differences in conscientiousness may cause and be shaped by health-relevant biopsychosocial events across many years. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

PMID: 18823176 [PubMed - in process]

This is a new story about conscientousness, but it really is old news. Just check our archives!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/22/scilonglife122.xml

Secret to a longer life - being conscientious
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 22/10/2008


Being conscientious not only leads to a more successful life but also a longer one, a new study claims.

Scientists have discovered that high achievers such as company executives, Olympic athletes and even world leaders live on average up to four years longer than the general public.

Researchers believe that being both industrious and scrupulous at the same time appear to be the key to the extra longevity even though the individual's jobs may be more stressful than the average person.

The life-prolonging benefits of a "conscientious life" have come to light from a comparison of 20 previous studies which together matched the behaviour of 8,900 people with the age they died.

Dr Howard Friedman, at the Univeristy of California, analysed the results using a pyschologicial scale of conscientiousness which broke it down into multiple traits, including organisation, thoroughness, reliability, competence, order, dutifulness, ambition, self-discipline, and deliberation.

The results, published in the New Scientist, found that highly conscientious people lived on average two to four years longer than the norm.

This extra margin exceeds the effects of socioeconomic status and intelligence, which are also known to increase longevity.

Dr Friedman, who worked with Dr. Margaret Kern, said conscientious people do not live longer simply because they are boring or cautious, but admits they tend to "live lives that are more stable and less stressful".

"Yes it is true that conscientious folks are less like to smoke or drink to excess or take too many risks," he said.

"But it is also true that conscientious folks lead life patterns that are more stable and less stressful."

The study also found that orderly, responsible and reliable also lived longer.

"One of the studies we included looked at American presidents," said Dr Kern.

The first US president, George Washington, lived to be 67, double the life expectancy there at the time.

"Washington was very conscientious, yet he certainly didn't live a boring life."


* * *

Well in Washington's era, infant mortality was ridiculously high, so that's not "double" the surviving adult life expectancy. As for CEOs and Olympians, aren't they more likely to be physically fit than average? Plus they didn't factor in self-perceived social status among CEOs and Olympians, which is important in longevity. Studies already show that winners of the Nobel prize, especially for Physics, live 2 years longer than those who don't because of the lifelong status boost. Were the nominees any less industrious? I don't think so.

Don't mind me. I'm just being defensive because, well, let's just say whenever I'm posting here, I'm supposed to be doing something else....

Personality Predictors of Longevity

Key Search Terms: Predictors of Longevity

My apologies for not updating in awhile, but I will no longer have internet access anytime in the near future, so updates will be spotty.

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/6/621

Published online before print July 2, 2008, 10.1097/PSY.0b013e31817b9371
Psychosomatic Medicine 70:621-627 (2008)
© 2008 American Psychosomatic Society

Personality Predictors of Longevity: Activity, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness

Antonio Terracciano, PhD, Corinna E. Löckenhoff, PhD, Alan B. Zonderman, PhD, Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD and Paul T. Costa, Jr, PhD

From the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, Maryland.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Antonio Terracciano, Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging, NIH, DHHS, 251 Bayview Blvd, Baltimore, MD 21224. E-mail: TerraccianoA@mail.nih.gov

Objective: To examine the association between personality traits and longevity.

Methods: Using the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, personality traits were assessed in 2359 participants (38% women; age = 17 to 98 years, mean = 50 years) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, starting in 1958. Over the duration of the study, 943 (40%) participants died, on average 18 years after their personality assessment. The association of each trait with longevity was examined by Cox regression controlling for demographic variables.

Results: In preliminary analyses among the deceased, those who scored 1 standard deviation (SD) above the mean on General Activity (a facet of Extraversion), Emotional Stability (low Neuroticism), or Conscientiousness lived on average 2 to 3 years longer than those scoring 1 SD below the mean. Survival analyses on the full sample confirmed the association of General Activity, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness with lower risk of death, such that every 1-SD increase was related to about 13%, 15%, and 27% risk reduction, respectively. The association of personality traits with longevity was largely independent from the influence of smoking and obesity. Personality predictors of longevity did not differ by sex, except for Ascendance (a facet of Extraversion). Emotional Stability was a significant predictor when the analyses were limited to deaths due to cardiovascular disease, with comparable effect sizes for General Activity and Conscientiousness.

Conclusions: In a large sample of generally healthy individuals followed for almost five decades, longevity was associated with being conscientious, emotionally stable, and active.

Key Words: neuroticism • health • mortality • longevity • smoking • obesity

Abbreviations: BLSA = Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging; SD = standard deviation; FFM = Five-Factor Model; GZTS = Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey; BMI = body mass index; HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval.


Another study:


http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/6/841

Psychosomatic Medicine 67:841-845 (2005)
© 2005 American Psychosomatic Society

Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Mortality in a Defined Population of Older Persons
Robert S. Wilson, PhD, Kristin R. Krueger, PhD, Liping Gu, MS, Julia L. Bienias, ScD, Carlos F. Mendes de Leon, PhD and Denis A. Evans, MD

From the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center (RSW, KRK) and the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging (LG, JLB, CFMdL, DAE), and the Departments of Neurological Sciences (RSW, DAE), Psychology (RSW, KRK), and Internal Medicine (JLB, CFMdL, DAE), Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Robert S. Wilson, PhD, Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, 600 S. Paulina, Suite 1038, Chicago, IL 60612. E-mail: rwilson@rush.edu

Objective: The objective of this study was to test the association of the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion with risk of death in old age.

Methods: A census was taken of a geographically defined urban community in Chicago, and those aged 65 years or older were invited to participate in an in-home interview; 6158 (79% of those eligible) did so. The interview included brief measures of neuroticism and extraversion, medical history, and questions about current participation in cognitive, social, and physical activities. Vital status was subsequently monitored. The association of each trait with risk of death was examined in a series of accelerated failure-time models that controlled for age, sex, race, and education.

Results: During a mean of more than 6 years of observation, 2430 persons (39.5%) died. A high level of neuroticism (score = 27; 90th percentile) was associated with a 33% increase in risk of death compared with a low level of neuroticism (score = 9; 10th percentile). A high level of extraversion (score = 33; 90th percentile) was associated with a 21% decrease in risk of death compared with a low level (score = 18; 10th percentile). Adjustment for medical conditions and health-related variables did not substantially affect results, but adjusting for baseline levels of cognitive, social, and physical activity reduced the association of both traits with mortality.

Conclusions: The results suggest that higher extraversion and lower neuroticism are associated with reduced risk of mortality in old age and that these associations are mediated in part by personality-related patterns of cognitive, social, and physical activity.

Key Words: neuroticism • extraversion • mortality • cognitive activity • social activity • physical activity

Abbreviations: SD = standard deviation; SE = standard error; RR = relative risk; CI = confidence interval.



Here are the facets making up the Big Five Factors of Personality traits:

http://www.testsonthenet.com/Factors-facets.htm


Facets of Conscientiousness (Work Ethic):

Sense of Competence
Orderliness
Sense of Responsibility
Achievement Striving
Self-Discipline
Deliberateness

Description

Conscientiousness concerns the way in which we control, regulate and direct our impulses. Impulses are not inherently bad; occasionally time constraints require a snap decision and acting on our first impulse can be an effective response. Also, in times of play rather than work, acting spontaneously and impulsively can be fun. Impulsive individuals can be seen by others as colourful, fun-to-be-with and zany.

Nonetheless, acting on impulse can lead to trouble in a number of ways. Some impulses are antisocial. Uncontrolled antisocial acts not only harm other members of society but also can result in retribution toward the perpetrator of such impulsive acts. Another problem with impulsive acts is that they often produce immediate rewards but undesirable, long-term consequences. Examples include excessive socialising that leads to being fired from one's job, hurling an insult that causes the break-up of an important relationship, or using pleasure-inducing drugs that eventually destroy one's health.

Impulsive behaviour, even when not seriously destructive, diminishes a person's effectiveness in significant ways. Acting impulsively disallows contemplating alternative courses of action, some of which would have been wiser than the impulsive choice. Impulsivity also sidetracks people during projects that require organised sequences of steps or stages. Accomplishments of an impulsive person are therefore small, scattered and inconsistent.

A hallmark of intelligence is the ability to think about future consequences before acting on an impulse. Intelligent activity involves contemplation of long-range goals, organising and planning routes to these goals and persisting toward one's goals in the face of short-lived impulses to the contrary. The idea that intelligence involves impulse control is nicely captured by the term prudence, an alternative label for the Conscientiousness domain. Prudent means both wise and cautious. Persons who score high on the Conscientiousness scale are, in fact, perceived by others as intelligent.

The benefits of high conscientiousness are obvious. Conscientious individuals avoid trouble and achieve high levels of success through purposeful planning and persistence. They are also positively regarded by others as intelligent and reliable. On the negative side, they can be compulsive perfectionists and workaholics. Furthermore, extremely conscientious individuals might be regarded as stuffy and boring. People who are lacking in conscientiousness may be criticised for their unreliability, lack of ambition and failure to stay within the lines, but they will experience many short-lived pleasures and they will never be called stuffy.

Sense of Competence
Competency describes an individual's confidence in their ability to accomplish things.


Orderliness
People with high scores in this area are well-organised, tidy and neat.


Sense of Responsibility
This facet of personality reflects the strength of a person's sense of duty and obligation.


Achievement-Striving
Individuals who score high in this area strive hard to achieve excellence. Their drive to be recognised as successful keeps them on track as they work hard to achieve their goals.


Self-Discipline
Self-discipline, called 'will-power' by many people, refers to the ability to persist at difficult or unpleasant tasks until they are completed.


Deliberateness
Cautiousness describes the disposition to think carefully through possibilities before acting.



Facets of Extraversion:

Warmth
Gregariousness
Assertiveness
Activity Level
Excitement-Seeking
Positive Emotions

Description:

Extraversion is marked by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy being with people, are full of energy and often experience positive emotions.

They tend to be enthusiastic and action-oriented individuals who are likely to say "Yes!" or "Let's go!" to opportunities for excitement. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves and draw attention to themselves.

Introverts lack the exuberance, energy and activity levels of extraverts. They tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate and disengaged from the social world.
However. their lack of social involvement should not be interpreted as shyness or depression; the introvert simply needs less stimulation than an extravert and prefers to be alone. The independence and reserve of the introvert is sometimes mistaken as unfriendliness or arrogance.

Warmth
Friendly people genuinely like other people and openly demonstrate positive feelings toward others.

Gregariousness
Gregarious people find the company of others pleasantly stimulating and rewarding. They enjoy the excitement of crowds.

Excitement-Seeking
High scorers for this area of personality are easily bored without high levels of stimulation.

Positive Emotions
This facet measures a person's ability to experience a range of positive feelings, including happiness, enthusiasm, optimism and joy.

Assertiveness
High scorers for Assertiveness like to charge and direct the activities of others. They tend to be leaders in groups.

Activity Level
Active individuals lead fast-paced and busy lives. They do things and move about quickly, energetically, vigorously and they are involved in many activities.

Facets of Natural Reactions (Emotional Stability Vs. Neuroticism)


Anxiety
Angry Hostility
Moodiness/Contentment
Self-Consciousness
Self-Indulgence
Sensitivity to Stress

Description:

People high in Natural Reactions are emotionally reactive. They respond emotionally to events that do not affect a lot of people and their reactions tend to be more intense. They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time. These problems can diminish a person's ability to think clearly, make decisions and cope effectively with stress.

At the other end of the scale, individuals who score low in Natural Reactions are less easily upset and are less emotionally reactive. They tend to be calm, relaxed and rarely experience negative feelings. Freedom from negative feelings does not necessarily mean that low scorers experience a lot of positive feelings, (frequency of positive emotions is measured by a facet of the Extraversion factor).


Anxiety
The 'fight-or-flight' system of the brain of anxious individuals is too easily and too often engaged. Therefore, people who score high in this area often feel like something unpleasant, threatening or dangerous is about to happen.

Angry Hostility
This facet measures the tendency to feel angry. Whether or not a person expresses annoyance and hostility depends on his or her level of Agreeableness.

Moodiness/Contentment
This facet measures normal differences in the way that people react to life's ups and downs. We are not using the word 'depression' in a medical or clinical sense.

Self-Consciousness
Self-conscious individuals are sensitive about what others think of them. Their concern about rejection and ridicule cause them to feel shy and uncomfortable around others. They are easily embarrassed.

Self-indulgence
People who score in the high range for Immoderation feel strong cravings and urges that they have difficulty resisting - even though they know that they are likely to regret it later. They tend to be oriented toward short-term pleasures and rewards rather than long-term consequences.

Sensitivity to Stress
High scorers on Sensitivity to Stress have difficulty in coping with stress. They experience panic, confusion and helplessness when under pressure or when facing emergency situations.


* * *

Not sure why Self-Indulgence vs. Moderation is a facet of Natural Reactions (Emotional Lability) instead of conscientiousness.

Obviously we see our centenarians in these descriptions--low stress, keep busy with a strong work ethic, believe in moderation, accept losses and move on.

108 Year Old Woman Doesn't See What The Big Deal Is

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-centenarion-15-sep15,0,1959317.story


At 108, Evanston woman has personal and scientific knowledge about aging
She likes to watch golf, nap and walk—but scientists are interested in her genes

By Deborah Horan | Chicago Tribune reporter
September 15, 2008




Evelyn Ralston, 108, lives in Evanston and has a birthday on Oct. 17. If she celebrates just two more birthdays, she'll be a supercentenarian, a person who has made it to 110, an age only 1 in nearly 6 million ever reaches. (Tribune photo by Jose M. Osorio / August 11, 2008)

Scientists would love to study Evelyn Ralston, pepper her with questions about her lifestyle, take samples of her DNA.

Not that their grand endeavors particularly concern the Evanston centenarian. Ralston would rather watch golf on television, nap in the afternoon and take daily walks outside her retirement home, a plush assisted living facility called Mather Place at The Georgian.

"I'm not that interesting," said Ralston, alert and immaculately dressed on a recent afternoon.

At 108 years old, Ralston is not only interesting to gerontologists, she belongs to a selective group of people who have lived more than a century. If she celebrates just two more birthdays, she'll enter an even more exclusive cohort of supercentenarians, people who have made it to 110, an age only 1 in nearly 6 million ever reaches.


Ralston will turn 109 Oct. 17. Her thin frame and unruffled manner likely helped her live this long; scientists say people who live longer tend to be slim and less stressed about life's ups and downs. But those traits are secondary to the attribute that matters: good genes.

"In order to make it past 100, you had to win the genetic lottery at birth," said Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Gerontologists are discovering that the secret to longevity lies not in a magical Fountain of Youth, but remains hidden—for now—along the intricate genetic sequencing in a person's DNA. The challenge is to map the genomes of the really old to find which gene mutations they have in common.

"Something helps them get to old age," said Nir Barzilai, a professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who has been studying centenarians since 1998. "We're trying to identify the genetic elements that help protect them."

So far, he has discovered four genes that he says appear important to longevity: two are related to good cholesterol; one exists in fat—and the less fat the better; the fourth gene delays growth.

The study of the very old has made other gains in recent years, gerontologists said.

Part of the reason is that there are more centenarians than ever before due to medical breakthroughs that reduced child mortality rates, deaths from infectious diseases, and the number of women dying during childbirth. Luck plays a factor too.

"You have to avoid getting run over by a bus," Olshansky said. "Then you have the opportunity to express the longevity potential you were born with."

Thomas Perls, director of the New England Supercentenarian Study and a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center, has found people older than 100 tend to be a diverse group—they may have had heart attacks or smoked or were overweight for part of their lives, and yet something compelled them to live a century.

But after 110, that heterogeneity ceases, he said. He has mapped the DNA of some 80 people over 110 and found they were more genetically homogenous. He hopes that similarity will make it easier to isolate the variations that helped them live so long.

"With [homogeneity] comes a much better chance of discovering some of these genetic variations," Perls said.

In about a year, Ralston would be eligible to participate in Perls' study. Ralston has a baptismal certificate and a passport to prove her age—but verifying even that fact has proved difficult for scientists studying extreme age.

Few places at the turn of the 19th century issued birth certificates. Births, if they were noted at all, were registered in church logs. Many people, gerontologists said, exaggerate their age or don't really know it. The lack of documentation makes keeping statistics difficult.

Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, for instance, showed a little more than 2,000 people were ages 100 to 104 in 2000, the most recent statistic available. The stats logged 59 as more than 110 years old. Gerontologists said those numbers are likely bloated.

Regardless, Ralston plans a quiet celebration with little fanfare.

If prompted, she'll recount her family's first car, bought in 1926, and the time she drove it off the family farm to help her brothers steer cattle to market.

She remembers her first trip to Europe after she got her passport at age 72.

Besides, as birthdays go, she doesn't see what is the big deal.

"I'm not that old," she said. "A lot of people are older than me."

dhoran@tribune.com

Near-Centenarian Roberta McCain in Perfect Health

http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/080108/page2.html

It is a gorgeous spring day in Washington, and I am sitting in a suite at the Hay-Adams Hotel chatting with Roberta McCain while she is having her nails done for Vogue's photo shoot. So far she's been amenable to—and completely delighted with—everything we've suggested: the nails, a change of clothes, a light hair-and-makeup session. "If I leave here and my glass slippers fall off, I won't know what to do," she says, laughing. Next up is a pose in stocking feet on a narrow five-story balcony, which is making everyone but her slightly nervous. "Just call me Barkis," she says, referring to the character in David Copperfield. "I'm willing."

At 96, Roberta (as she insists everyone call her) is not just willing but almost startlingly able and a good example of the resilient genes that her son has been eager to showcase by taking her out on the campaign trail. The daughter of a successful wildcatter, the widow of a highly decorated naval admiral, and now the mother of the Republican nominee for the presidency, she spent her married life in posts ranging from London to Honolulu and has traveled—relentlessly—to pretty much every point in between. At 88, when she was told she was too old to rent a car in Europe, she simply bought one and drove it from Munich to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with her twin sister and most constant traveling companion, Rowena. ("I wanted to see Samarkand," she explains, and with that accomplished she continued on to Greece, India, and New Zealand, leaving the car behind in Europe for future jaunts.) Last Christmas she had lunch in Paris at Maxim's and spent New Year's Eve at the Lido before taking off for England and Scotland. A woman of no light convictions, she was rumored, during her son's 2000 presidential bid, to have flown the Taiwanese flag out the window of her apartment in Washington near the Chinese Embassy on the anniversary of the Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil War. While her son said, "I would truly not be surprised," his mother wasn't giving anything away. "I'm not saying whether I did or I didn't," she told a reporter. "The less said, the sooner mended. Have you heard that one?"

Despite such uncharacteristic hedging, The Washington Post, in a play on the bus that has become her son's campaign signature, dubbed her "The Even Straighter Talk Express," and it is an apt description. Thoroughly engaging, she is the proverbial open book, albeit a rollicking one that is equal parts history, travelogue, and Who's Who of the twentieth century. In the time it takes for two coats of pale-pink nail polish to dry, the conversation loops from: mutual friends we have in Mississippi (her father grew up there, and the McCain family roots in the state also go deep); the Mae West/W. C. Fields film My Little Chickadee ("the funniest movie I ever saw"); the fate of the shah of Iran ("The way we treated that man was disgraceful.… His problem was he never let anyone beneath him have enough power"); her friendship with J. Paul Getty ("I just loved him—he could tell you about everything"), and the party she has just attended at the Turkish embassy ("It was so glamorous you can't believe it"). She begins almost every sentence with "honey," and when the shoot is over, she tucks, with gusto, into a plate of cold lobster mayonnaise. At her departure, she assures us all that "this was the most fun I've ever had."

She may well have meant it—"I'm happiest wherever I am right this minute," she has told me—but there is no question that she has had a lot more fun than this.

Roberta Wright McCain was born on February 7, 1912, to Myrtle and Archie Wright, who had accumulated lots of land in Oklahoma and Texas just before the oil boom, and subsequently moved the family to Los Angeles. The two youngest of five children, she and Rowena were "always real athletic," she says. "We could run faster and jump higher, and at church suppers or what-have-you, we were always going to win the race. There was no conceit about it or anything; everybody just knew the twins could do it." Her father instilled the travel bug in his children early on, driving them through the Mojave Desert and taking them on trips to see the source of the Mississippi and to learn about the Great Lakes. With their mother the twins went by train to New York. "She always got her linen on sale at B. Altman's in January and June, and she bought our clothes at Best's."

When Roberta eloped at nineteen with Jack McCain, a young Navy ensign ("the lowest of the low," she says of his rank), she took her schoolbooks with her to Tijuana, where they married in a room above Caesar's bar. The event earned the groom a reprimand for going AWOL and merited a headline in the San Francisco Examiner: SOCIETY COED ELOPES WITH NAVAL OFFICER: ROBERTA WRIGHT DEFIES FAMILY. Rowena describes their mother as having a "cat fit" over the nuptials, and looking back, Roberta says she can understand why she "was out of sorts" with her daughter pretty much all the time. "I realize now I was so immature. I just took life as it came—still do."

The latter turned out to be good strategy for a naval wife who occasionally camped out in Quonset huts and moved her three children, Sandy, John III, and Joe, from port to port while her husband was away for long stretches. She insists she loved every place she settled, except maybe Panama, "but that was because it was so hot and there wasn't any air-conditioning." In his memoir, Faith of My Fathers, McCain writes that his mother was obliged to fill the roles of both parents, and that he "became my mother's son," adding that what he lacked of Roberta's "charm and grace," he made up for by "emulating and exaggerating her other characteristics. She was loquacious, and I was boisterous. Her exuberance became rowdiness in me.… She has an irrepressible spirit that yields to no adversity." A touching tribute to be sure, but Roberta will have none of it. "Obviously," she told a reporter when the book was released, "that means all the trouble he got into came from me."

As her husband ascended the ranks, life became a tad more glamorous. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (whom she describes as "misunderstood") gave her presents, and in Hawaii she became close friends with Clare Boothe Luce. While in London she would frequently spend country weekends at the estates of both Getty and Lord Mountbatten. "My eyes were just rolling around in my head like marbles, I was so impressed with the people we were meeting all the time," she tells me. "But they were famous because they'd amounted to something."

It was in London that she learned that "Johnny," as she invariably calls her son, had been shot down in Vietnam. First she waited days to find out if he was alive, and then she waited five and a half years for him to be released. When I ask if she was a nervous wreck through it all, she says, simply, "No. I believe in God's will, I really do. When I pray, I only ever ask for that; I don't ask for things like 'Please help Johnny get into Princeton.' " Besides, she says, "I had talked all that patriotic talk, so in times of fish or cut bait, do I stand up to the claims I've made or not?"

Not only was her husband a decorated admiral, her father-in-law was as well. "I would have been ashamed if my son had not served his country. The ones I feel sorry for are these seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds out there now who lose a leg. But Johnny chose his profession; he was doing his job," she says, adding that I could go down in a plane crash doing mine. "This is life."

"When Johnny was in prison, that woman never made a peep," says Rowena of her twin. "Same thing after Jack died." Still, while Roberta may have been stoic, she never lost her sense of delight in the world. "We were invited everywhere, and I always wanted to go along," Roberta says. When her husband died in 1981, on a flight from Europe to Washington, where they had finally settled, she kept going, traveling with Rowena from the Jordanian desert to Tasmania for two or three months each year. Two years ago, when she could no longer get insurance on the car she had left in Europe, a Mercedes "baby Benz," she had it shipped back to the States and drove it across the country to her nephew in San Francisco—by way of Mississippi, Arkansas ("I couldn't find the Ozarks, or at least I didn't see all the beauty I'd read about"), Louisiana, and Arizona, where she was given a ticket for going 112 miles an hour. "The policeman said, 'Didn't you see me?' and I said, 'Yeah, I saw you,' " she tells me, laughing. "I went straight to the next town and got the money to send to the police. I thought the quicker it was over, the better, so nobody would find out."

"She knows everything that's in every museum in this world," says Rowena. Indeed, when she's not on the road, she avails herself of the offerings of her home city, going to the National Gallery or the Freer (she has a whole room full of the Chinese porcelain she loves, and the Freer has a stunning collection) every Tuesday morning for three hours (as long as she can legally park her car, a red BMW). On occasion, she says, she "hoists herself up to New York," taking the train (with a stop in Philadelphia to visit the Museum of Art there "until my feet fall off") and checking into the New York Yacht Club "because it's cheap." An avid reader, she is currently engrossed in The Odyssey of Chinese Imperial Art Treasures ("It's like a paper chase—it ought to be a movie") and, of course, the newspapers. "I think the treatment they've given Hillary is just awful. She's a human being, and she's certainly worked hard. I mean, anything you say, you can take two ways, even if it's about the weather."


She credits her longevity to good genes (her father remained active until he died of cancer at 98) as well as her California upbringing. Rowena concurs. "We played outside all the time and only ate fresh vegetables and fruits—crates of oranges from California and apples shipped in from Maryland. Our parents had some sense. They never let us drink Coca-Cola or coffee or anything like that, and the only cakes we ever saw were at other children's birthday parties." Both sisters rarely touch alcohol, though Rowena professes to love the occasional glass of champagne and reports seeing Roberta drink beer, but only in Europe.

"I don't do anything I'm supposed to do," Roberta tells me on the phone when I ask her how she manages to maintain her almost astonishing vitality. "I don't exercise, and today I've already eaten half a box of caramel popcorn." The regimen, or lack thereof, seems to be working. Her posture is straight as an arrow, her gait is brisk, and, though a doctor told her once she had arthritis in her hands, she says, "I guess I do, but I've never had an ounce of pain from it.

"Honey, I've had a dream life, and it was all luck," she says. I venture that the impetuosity and appetite her mother so often bemoaned might have had at least a bit to do with it. "I'm glad my mother's not around, because I still don't plan ahead or think things out." She laughs. "Mother told me once, 'If the gardener asked you to go to Chinatown with him, you'd go.' And I thought, Well, of course I would."

"The Firecracker" has been edited for Style.com; the complete story appears in the August 2008 issue of Vogue.

108 Years of Staying Active

Original Source - The News & Observer: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/653136.html


Centenarian stayed active with her hands and her mind

Andrea Weigl, Staff Writer

When Olga Wilsberg was born, William McKinley was president. In her 108 years, she saw 18 other U.S presidents take office.

But if Wilsberg knew the secret to a long life and a sharp mind, she never shared it.

"I don't know why. I'm just hanging on," she said three years ago in an interview with her hometown paper, The Daily Reflector in Greenville, N.C.

Wilsberg died June 12.

Her family credits her active lifestyle -- one that involved baking, sewing, card playing, reading, daily walks and exercise for most of her 100-plus years. She didn't smoke and only occasionally drank a glass of wine or the half a glass of beer that she preferred when eating pizza.

"My mother's mind, up to the day she died, was perfect," said her son, Harold Wilsberg, 83, of Mattituck, N.Y. "She could remember everything."

Her granddaughter agreed. "She was alert until the end," said Sharon Cummings of Raleigh.

Olga Wilsberg was born in Greenport, a town on Long Island, N.Y. She was the second youngest of nine children. One of her earliest memories was being hit by a car at the age 6 or 7. She remembered lying under the car after being hit and looking up to see the brass kerosene lamps that served as headlights, according to Cummings.

She graduated from the eighth grade. At the age of 21, she married Ernest Wilsberg and moved 13 miles down the road to Mattituck, N.Y. They had two sons and a daughter.

Life in the Great Depression

Her relatives say she was a product of her times. She learned to be frugal, a habit held over from raising a family during the Depression. Her husband worked as an engineer on yachts and traveled to Florida for months at a time. She often was left alone to raise their children, especially during the winter.

She made friends with the local farmers who would let her pick berries and beans left on the vine. She would can the fruits and vegetables and stock her pantry with them. One day when a nor'easter blew a load of scallops onto the beach, she filled pillowcases with them and then called her neighbors to do the same.

In the summer, she would rent rooms to tourists for $12 a week. Her children would sleep on the back porch to make room for boarders.

"Those were tough times in the early 1930s," said her daughter, Doris Jenkins of Greenville.

Wilsberg and her husband eventually bought a house in Florida and split their time between the Northeast and the South. In the 1980s, they came to live with Jenkins in North Carolina. In 1985, Wilsberg's husband, who also lived to the century mark, died. Afterward, the mother and daughter settled into life together in Greenville.

Sharon Cummings recalls her grandmother, who also was known as "Gram," as an active woman. She was constantly baking, knitting baby clothes, crocheting and quilting. She played a mean hand of gin rummy and spades. She devoured books from the library. She had her hair rolled and curled.

Cummings said her grandmother also was prone to speak her mind.

"She was not just passive, sitting in her chair," Cummings said. "She was telling me how to raise my children whether I wanted to know or not."

Wilsberg stayed in excellent health. She told The Daily Reflector that she didn't even take aspirin. She lived with her daughter until she was 106. After her death on June 12, Cummings, her granddaughter, said the hospice workers told her, "Her mind was still there. Her body just gave up."

* * *

Olga Wilsberg was married to her husband, Ernest, for 66 years until he died in 1985. She is survived by two sons, Ernest Wilsberg and Harold Wilsberg, both of Mattituck, N.Y.; a daughter, Doris Jenkins of Greenville; nine grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and four great-great grandchildren.

Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848 or andrea.weigl@newsobserver.com.

Personality Predictors of Longevity in Tokyo Centenarians

http://www.springerlink.com/content/a537x21j0j377756/

Do personality characteristics predict longevity? Findings from the Tokyo Centenarian Study

Journal AGE
Publisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 0161-9152 (Print) 1574-4647 (Online)
Issue Volume 28, Number 4 / December, 2006
Category Research Article
DOI 10.1007/s11357-006-9024-6
Pages 353-361
Subject Collection Biomedical and Life Sciences
SpringerLink Date Thursday, November 30, 2006


Research Article
Do personality characteristics predict longevity? Findings from the Tokyo Centenarian Study

Y. Masui1, 3 Contact Information, Y. Gondo1, H. Inagaki1 and N. Hirose2
(1) Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan
(2) Department of Geriatric Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
(3) Present address: 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0015, Japan

Received: 6 June 2006 Revised: 6 October 2006 Accepted: 7 October 2006 Published online: 29 November 2006

Abstract To explore whether personality influences longevity we examined the personality characteristics of centenarians. We developed a new method that compares an actual personality test score for centenarians with a predicted test score for a 100-year-old, calculated from younger controls. The participants consisted of 70 cognitively intact Japanese centenarians aged 100–106 years and 1812 elderly people aged 60–84 years, all residents of Tokyo. The NEO five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) was used to assess the “big five” personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The results showed higher openness in both male and female centenarians, and higher conscientiousness and extraversion in female centenarians, as compared to controls. These results suggest that high scores in the specific personality traits conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness, are associated with longevity. We speculate that these personality traits contribute to longevity through health-related behavior, stress reduction, and adaptation to the challenging problems of the “oldest old”.

Key words centenarian - longevity factors - NEO-FFI - personality traits

Contact Information Y. Masui
Email: ymasui@tmig.or.jp

* * *

I thought the universal finding when it came to the big five was low neuroticism, a result that isn't seen here. There could be ethnic/cultural issues at play.

I guess there is still a lot of variation when it comes to long-lived people's personalities, but the key is to have less anxiety. So you may be conscientious, for example, but if it's motivated by anxiety about poor future outcomes rather than earnestness and optimism, it probably won't get you as far.

'Living to 100' Author Shares Research Findings

Courtesy of:
http://www.healthandage.com/professional/health-center/37/article/2856/Lifestyles-of-Centenarians.html


Lifestyles of Centenarians

Robert W. Griffith, MD
June 18, 2004

Professor Thomas Perls of Harvard Medical School is the founder of the New England Centenarian Study (NECS); this study reports on the heath of some of the United States' oldest citizens. He has distilled the most interesting results in his book "Living to 100". Here are some further extracts. Robert Griffith, Editor.

Introduction

While we were studying centenarians' cognitive function, we were also looking at their individual characteristics, hoping to find something that would account for their ability to live to 100. Our goal was to find out what made centenarians healthier than the vast majority of people. Some highly visible studies had indicated that environmental and behavioral factors -- like diet, exercise habits, access to health care -- were much more important than inherited abilities in coping with aging.

Diet?

Most researchers believe that studies of diet, lifestyle, and personality would yield more concrete, usable information about healthy aging. However, one morning we were at a lecture at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, where we happened to bump into Lester Steinberg, the son of one of our NECS subjects. At 79, Dr. Steinberg shows all the signs of slow aging we've become accustomed to seeing among centenarians' children, and he continues to practice medicine in the Boston area. Lectures such as the one we were attending are frequently accompanied by breakfast buffets; Dr. Steinberg reached out for a particularly sugary Danish.

"Do you really want to do that?" we said, surprised at Dr. Steinberg's choice of breakfast fare.

"Why not?" he replied. "I bet if you really knew what all the centenarians grew up eating, even my mother, you would be astounded. Back at the turn of the century, everyone ate fatty, salty foods. Storing food was the big problem, and people ate salted fish and meat, and pickled meat and vegetables. Everyone ate as much sugar and fat as they could find, because it was scarcer. I'm sure my mother grew up eating Danishes, and for all I know, they're probably good for me!"

Education?

We then turned to another important and easily measurable dimension of lifestyle: formal education. But when we looked among our subjects for signs of higher learning, again we found a great variety of backgrounds and histories. Only two of our study subjects had advanced degrees: MIT mathematics professor Dirk Struik and psychology PhD Lucy Boring. Some of our centenarians may have educated themselves extensively. Others may have been great readers but for not followers of any professional discipline. However, the average educational level our subjects attained was the 10th grade, which was completely consistent with the times they grew up in. Centenarians tell us it's not formal education that allows one to live to 100 in good cognitive and physical health.

Personality?

Another avenue that lay open to us was the study of personality. Why did some people cope so well with aging and remained happy and engaged in life, while others with equal or perhaps even greater financial and health resources became miserable in old age? As we began interviewing our subjects, their stories of survival became more amazing and impressive to us. We had previously suspected that one of the reasons centenarians were able to live cell so long was that, just as they had avoided disease, they had also been lucky enough to skirt dangerous and stressful situations. But we quickly found out how wrong we were.

Personality is one of the most important factors in survival. We see this in war, in treatment of disease, in sports, in academics, and in the type of terrible episodes Mrs. Blunder has lived through.1 And we see it as an important component in the lights of centenarians. Something about centenarians allows them to accept the many losses of loved ones that occur along the road to 100, to live with limitations that come with growing over, and to deal with the feelings of impending mortality that certainly hang more heavily as time goes on. Not only do centenarians endure these upsets, but they frequently flourished despite them -- writing poetry and autobiographies, learning to paint, winning golf tournaments.

Stress-resistant personalities

To identify lifelong personality traits that might lead to healthy aging, we administered personality testing to 60 centenarians. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory is a personality assessment tool that has been widely used to study neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeability, and conscientiousness in older individuals. It was very revealing to find that centenarians, particularly women, are relatively immune to neuroticism. The term "neuroticism", the most important and pervasive domain of the five personality traits, is really a measure for what has been called "negative emotionality" or unhealthy feelings, like anger, fear, guilt, and sadness. It includes such emotional facets as depression, anxiety, hostility, self-consciousness (social unease), impulsiveness, and vulnerability. For example, older people who are high in neuroticism would see advancing age as a crisis, and might begin to worry about an unhappy retirement and poor health.

Centenarians are natural stress-shedders, but what comes easily to them because of their innate personalities may have to be consciously learned by the rest of us. This doesn't mean we can't do it with enough efforts or practice, just as those of us without natural athletic ability have learned to hit a tennis ball or ski down a mountain reasonably well. Myer Saxe, a 100-year-old man who rose from newsboy to owner of a large shoe factory, attributes his abilities to shed stress not to an easy-going personality but to a conscious decision at a certain point in life that he was going to be a "fun guy". "I decided not to worry about anything . . . I saw that worrying didn't do any good."

Although we may not be able to change our basic personalities, we can change how we respond to situations. For example, people with hard-driving, achievement-oriented personalities are probably not going to change their basic tendencies, mellow out, and avoid stressful situations. However, they can learn from centenarians that managing stress is important. They can learn the advantages of being adaptable and changing those aspects of their lifestyle that do not contribute to health. They can make conscious decisions to spend more health-enhancing time with family and friends. And they can gain a new perspective on their strivings by taking a humorous look at themselves.

With their stress-resistant personalities and low risk for neuroticism and depression, centenarians are natural stress-shedders who shrug off life's slings and arrows with relative ease. If people can emulate centenarians, either through stress reduction programs, alternative approaches like yoga, or a regular physical exercise program, we believe they stand a much better chance of coping with the mental and physical problems of old age.

Some survival strategies of the centenarian lifestyle are unexpected. One of our centenarians' most effective self-protective devices comes from their ability to lighten their emotional load with humor. Many older people become sensitive about discussing illness, sex, and the prospect of death, or become preoccupied with troubles. In contrast, a visible and consistent component of the centenarian repertoire is humor.

Humor

Humor not only helps us cope emotionally, it also helps us to think creatively and solve problems. It encourages and enables our minds to keep active, which is one of the most important defenses we have against aging. In a kind of cognitive reframing, it allows us to approach situations in a new way. As in the saying "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade," humor can turn an embarrassing situation, like accidentally stepping off a dock and getting soaked, into a hilarious and memorable story. Humor often helps people put physical or psychological pain aside so they can get on with their work and lives. Doctors and nurses working with terminally ill patients can use humor as a way to "package and send off" the emotions they themselves feel while watching people die. In the same way, centenarians use humor to gain perspective on their own imminent deaths.

Relationships

Despite the unavoidable fact that they have outlived numerous family members and friends, nearly all centenarians have many meaningful relationships. They are almost never "loners". William Cohen, 101, who viewed independence as important to his longevity, realized that a close family was just as important. "The goal when you're older is to keep family close," he said, "to be independent, but to have them to help. As you get older, you need people, not dollars and cents."

Marriage?

One of the most interesting paradoxes we found in the study was that a relatively high proportion of female centenarians -- about 14% -- lacked the most important social connection in our culture: marriage. A surprisingly large proportion of our centenarian women never married, even though marriage was an important goal for young women of this generation. However, these lifelong single women were surrounded by loving people of all ages. Marion McDonald, a former Harvard Medical School chemistry instructor who never married, sent out nearly 150 greeting cards each year that she had painted and lettered herself. She received visits and telephone calls from former students across the country, who sought her advice and conversation.

Religion?

National polls show that religious behavior and attitudes are more prevalent in people over 65. Half of these people go to church each week and three-quarters of them agree with such statements as, "I constantly seek God's will through prayer," and "I believe God loves me even though I might not always pleased Him." Among persons 65 and older, 82% say their religious beliefs are a very important influence in their lives.

Adaptability!

One of the key reasons for centenarians' longevity, we believe, is their adaptive capacity. Adaptation is not exclusively passive, nor is it limited to responses to environmental stimuli. The full repertoire of adaptation includes the ability to control the environment and to take charge of situations.

However, when centenarians see that they cannot continue an activity to which they have become accustomed, they quickly either find a workable new way to do the activity or substitute a more manageable one. Several of our centenarians took the unusual step of arranging their own admissions to nursing homes and assisted living environments. Most older people fight fiercely against this loss of independence, and then deteriorate noticeably. When the best solution is a nursing home, centenarians jump in and get comfortable.



The next extracts from Professor Perls' deal with the differences between men and women in their marathon race to centenarian status. You can buy his book "Living to 100" at Amazon; click here

Source

* Living to 100: Lessons in Living To Your Maximum Potential at Any Age. TT. Perls, MH. Silver, 1st edition, Basic Books, New York, NY, 1999


Footnotes
1. Mrs. Blunder is one of the centenarians who survived the Nazi invasion of Austria and the loss of many of her relatives.


* * *



Professor Boring?! Is she ever in the wrong profession!

Okinawan Quick Summary - CNN Transcript

http://www.okinawaprogram.com/news/20041214_cnn.html

This is a transcript from a CNN morning show, courtesy of the above website.


Dr. Craig Willcox on CNN, American Morning

From CNN: American Morning

DEC-14-2004

The following is an edited* transcript from the December 14th broadcast of CNN's American Morning, with comments and corrections added by Dr. Craig Willcox, co-creator of the Okinawa Diet™ and co-authtor of The Okinawa Program and The Okinawa Diet Plan:

HEMMER: Time to page the good doctor. Sanjay Gupta all the way from Tokyo now. On the Japanese island of Okinawa, living longer has become a fact of life.

I will talk to Sanjay in a moment about that. First, though, some background from here in Japan and CNN's Atika Shubert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Guess how old Makato Nakamatsu (ph) is? Seventy? Eighty? Ninety, maybe? Try 100 years old.

This sprightly great grandmother of 13 is just one of more than 800 centenarians living in Okinawa, the largest verifiable and healthiest concentration of 100 year olds in the world.

On the islands of Okinawa, diseases like cancer, diabetes, and hypertension are rare. Healthy seniors are seen actively at work fishing and farming, seemingly immune to old age.

Okinawa is home to the world's oldest and healthiest people and part of the secret seems to be right on this fishing boat. Elderly fishermen who work late into their lives and of course eat the daily catch. And that turns out to be part of the secret of the Okinawa fountain of youth: staying active and eating well.
That, according to Dr. Craig Willcox, who has studied Okinawa's centenarians for more than a decade.

DR. CRAIG WILLCOX, GERONTOLOGIST: I think they just came up with the right formula, Okinawa. They're doing a lot to either avoid or delay these diseases associated with aging.

SHUBERT: We asked Dr. Willcox to show us how the Okinawans do it. He took us to the market.

WILLCOX: Let's have a look at this. Wow. See that purple color?

(I was pointing out the lycopene content of dragon fruit as well as other Okinawan fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon and sweet potatoes, that are extremely high in carotenoids, anti-oxidants and essential vitamins and minerals - DCW.)

SHUBERT: First, eat lots of colorful fruits and veggies. That means carbs too, but unrefined. Brown rice or whole wheat.

(It is important to eat whole carbohydrates that are high in fiber and that have been refined as little as possible in order to maximize nutritional content as well as minimize the negative effects of unrefined carbs on blood sugar levels. Eating carbs low on the Glycemic Index as well as minimizing quick-release carbs in the diet will keep you healthy and slim throughout life (See pages 33-37 and 89-95 of The Okinawa Diet Plan as well as pages 92-101 of The Okinawa Program for a more in depth explanation of the importance of eating the right carbohydrates) - DCW).

WILLCOX: The traditional diet is very vegetable heavy. Over 70 percent of the daily color intake came from vegetables.
(The staple of the traditional Okinawa Diet was the sweet potato, a nutritional powerhouse and great source of unrefined carbohydrates. Also loaded with beta-carotene, B vitamins, C, E, calcium, potassium, iron and fiber. Over 200 case-control studies have shown that people who consume a diet higher in vegetables suffer from lowers rates of chronic diseases, including cancer, and live longer. - DCW).

SHUBERT: Second, eat moderate portions of protein, especially heart healthy fish and tofu. But also a surprising Okinawan favorite: pork. But just a little.
(The traditional meat in Okinawa was pork but its consumption was limited to ceremonial occasions. Thus, the Okinawan elders have consumed very little meat over the course of their lives. Even now their meat consumption remains less than a quarter of what most people eat in North America. - DCW).

WILLCOX: The way that this is prepared in a traditional Okinawan style would be to boil this down and keep pouring it off until you pour off all the fat.

SHUBERT: Third, follow Okinawan table etiquette. Eat until you are 80 percent full and no more. That keeps calories in check.

Is that the secret to Nakamatsu's exuberant good health? She's certainly happy to share her healthy lunch, but also recommends daily exercises. Apparently when you live past 100 you know some pretty good dance moves. And if you do all that, she says, she'll come visit you when you turn 100.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Okinawa, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: What a life for her. We're paging the good doctor now. Sanjay Gupta, at the CNN Center.

How are you, Sanjay? Good morning. Tell us about this fountain of youth. How you doing? GUPTA: Good morning. Yes, really interesting, obviously. Okinawa (is) a great place to look at as far as centenarians go. A couple of facts to point out.

First of all, with regards to Okinawa. So they live longer, lower rates of Alzheimer's. If they leave the island, those things go away. Why, is the question? Atika sort of mentioned a couple of these things.

(Okinawans consuming a meat-heavy diet in Brazil live 17 years shorter on average than those who consume the traditional diet in Okinawa. Okinawans who migrate to Hawaii and consume an East-West blend of foods, or East-West fusion diet tend to live almost as long as Okinawans in Okinawa - DCW).

Vigorous physical and mental exercise throughout their lives. A diet low in fat and salt. High in fruits and vegetables.

Also a couple of other interesting things that we found in our research on this -- soy, a significant part of the diet, 60 to 120 grams of soy daily and eat only until you're 80 percent full.

(Soy founds are high in flavonoids and people who consume high amounts of soy products have generally been found to suffer from lower rates of hormone-dependent cancers such as breast and/or prostate. Women who consume more soy have usually been found to have a decreased incidence of menopausal related symptoms such as hot flashes, as well as lower rates of osteoporosis - DCW ).

Atika mentioned this, it's called hara-hachi-bu, Bill, that's the name of it -- it's called eat only until you're 80 percent full. That's going to make you eat fewer calories. Really important.

(As we point out in The Okinawa Diet Plan, eating foods that are low in caloric density has been shown to increase life expectancy - DCW)

Also an important sense of social belonging. Everyone from the youngest in this community to the oldest in this community has a sense of place and is respected as such, Bill. All these things seem to have a factor as well.

(As we pointed out in our first book, The Okinawa Program, strong social support networks are associated with longevity--DCW)

HEMMER: Yes, is this exclusive only to Okinawa, Sanjay, or do you find if you put out the map of the world do you find other areas of the world where you see similar aging rates?

GUPTA: Well, Okinawa is one of the best, certainly, around the world, but there are other places around the world that have high concentrations of centenarians. Take a look: Okinawa topping the list but also Nova Scotia, Canada, for example. Sardinia, Italy as well.

(Okinawa has the highest age-validated centenarian population in the world at 47 per 100,000 population vs about 10 per 100,000 in the US. - DCW)

If you want to look around the world as far as life expectancy Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan all around 81. Japan as a country 81.

Canada 80, France 79. USA 77. China 72 and Botswana only 30. The reason it's so low in Botswana really has to do with high infant mortality rates there, Bill.

(These rates differ according to whose data you use but Japan comes out on top in very case. Of the Japanese, the Okinawans are the longest-lived at 78 years for men and 86 years for women on average. Botswana also is suffering from the AIDS epidemic and has lost approximately 10 years of life expectancy in the past couple of decades - DCW)

HEMMER: What about personality traits, Sanjay? Do you see any common link that would conclude any research as to why some people are living longer than others?

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, there are some significant personality links and this is probably one of the most interesting things about it. If you look at the personalities of people. Strong but flexible characters. They tend to be more dominant in terms of their personality.

Also a bit suspicious. Suspicious of those around them, sometimes. But they're very practical minded. And tend to be more relaxed in general. Another important thing that we found as well, Bill, is that the people who lived longer oftentimes had helpers or people that they associated with who were much younger than them. That was both their -- they got some help from those young people as well as sort of a passageway into being young themselves, perhaps making them live longer, Bill.

(As we pointed out in our first book, personality and longevity experts seem to agree that a positive outlook, as seen in optimistic, emotionally stable, and flexible personalities is a definite advantage for coping with stressful life circumstances. They tend to be emotionally resilient and strong-willed types. Through personality testing we found that Okinawan centenarians tended to score high in “self-determination” and “self-confidence” and low in “tension” and “time-urgency.” See pages 245-251 of The Okinawa Program for further information on personality and longevity. - DCW)

HEMMER: How about that woman in the story that Atika showed -- she was just vibrant -- absolutely.

Hey, thanks, Sanjay. Very interesting stuff. Eighty percent filled and then stop. Talk to you later. Oh, I like that too. We'll talk to you later.