We all want to live a long and healthy life, but what is it that enables some exceptional people to live for more than a century? What is it about their lifestyle that allows them to defy the tatisticians and go so far beyond their expected lifespan? And what can the rest of us learn rom them that may help us to stretch our own lifespans – if only by a few years? “Most of those who live to the age of one hundred exhibit mderation in eating – avoiding uder-eating, over-eating and fad diets."

After making a study of some of these remarkable ‘centenarians’, I have come to the following conclusions. First, it is a good idea to be a member of the female gender. From birth onwards, women’s bodies are more resistant to disease and infection and less likely to suffer injury. This is partly because evolution has given women better immune systems and partly because they are, by nature, more cautious than men. In primeval times, men were more expendable than women. They were the risk-takers, the members of the primitive tribes who went off on the hunt where they had to face possible injury and death. Even today, in modern urban society, for every ten female injuries there are twenty-one male ones. The ancient bias remains with us.

It was important for the early tribal females to remain as healthy as possible because of their crucial role in reproduction and ensuring that the tiny communities of our ancient ancestors would flourish and grow in number. Again, this bias remains with us today, with women, on average, living seven years longer than men. It has been argued that this is due to men’s more stressful lives, but this accounts for only a small part of the difference. If you examine the longevity of men and women living in identical social conditions – monks and nuns, for example – you find that the difference still exists, with the latter living five years longer than the monks. And if you check the sex ratio of those remarkable individuals who manage to live for more than 100 years, then you find that for every ten male centenarians, there will be fifty females.

A second advantage – if you wish one day to celebrate with 100 candles on your birthday cake – is to have had long-lived parents and grandparents. If you are lucky enough to come from a long line of octogenarians or better, you will stand a much better chance of living to a ripe old age yourself – and this applies to both men and women. If your family history shows poor health records, with frequent early deaths, then you are much less likely to enjoy a long life. This is because, genetically, some family trees are more resistant than others to such weaknesses as cancer, diabetes or heart failure. This is where genetic engineering is hoping to make progress in the years ahead, with the aim of removing the genes that are linked to these weaknesses.

Reinforcing the idea that we may each possess a few ‘good health genes’ or ‘bad health genes’ is the fact that centenarians are sometimes smokers. We are all told that smoking kills, that it seriously shortens out lives – and for the majority of us this is certainly true. But then we come across people like Edith Beck who was still smoking at the age of 103 and Jeanne Calment who was told to give up smoking at the age of 117, but was still caught puffing on a cigarette in secret a year later. How can this be? Why aren’t they coughing and wheezing, like so many smokers half their age? The answer, it seems, is that they have inherited remarkable immune systems. Their bodies are capable of defending themselves against almost all intrusions, even repeated exposure to cigarette tar. When I visited Madame Calment on the occasion of her 121st birthday, I asked her doctor about her medical records and was told, to my astonishment, that she had not suffered a single day’s illness in her entire life. What an immune system she must have had. What the rest of us wouldn’t give for her genetic secrets.

But supposing we are not so well protected by our genes, how can the rest of us manage to live just a little longer? The answer is to be found in the general lifestyle of the long-lived. One important feature is that they are hardly ever what could be called ‘lazy people’. Those who live more than a hundred years have nearly always been more mobile and physically active than the average. In particular, they have frequently been vigorous walkers or cyclists. I do not mean to imply that they were athletes – it is a strange fact that athletes do not live longer than the rest of us. Violent exercise seems to take its toll on the human body. But the long-lived did take steady, relaxed exercise on an almost daily basis. Madame Calment, for example, was still riding her bicycle around Arles when she was 100.

Mental exercise seems to be as important as physical activity. Nearly all the centenarians retained a sharp interest in the world around them. They still had a zest for life, right to the end. My favourite example is Margaret Murray, the archaeologist, who wrote a book with the wonderful title of ‘My First Hundred Years’. Above all, the very long-lived lacked nostalgia. They didn’t look back to ‘the good old days’ – they felt that the good days were still ahead of them.

A sense of humour also appeared to be an important ingredient. Most centenarians managed to keep a twinkle in their eyes – even if their vision was not as good as it used to be. This twinkle not only reflected that fact that they still found life entertaining, but also revealed that the endorphins released by laughter were still helping to flood their aged bodies with nature’s in-built pain-killers.

Other qualities that appeared time and again among the centenarians were: a degree of self-discipline – a tendency to organise their lives and to impose a pattern on their daily routines; moderation in eating – most of them avoided over-eating and under-eating and fad diets were nowhere to be found; moderation in drinking – many of them enjoyed alcohol, but only in small, regular amounts; a focus on things outside themselves – without too much introspection or self-examination; and finally, and most importantly, a calm, even-tempered nature.

If these are the qualities that are typical of the 100+ survivors, then they must surely give us some clues as to how we, who have not yet reached that extraordinary age, can best increase our chance of getting there.

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