If you want to live to be 100, here are a few things you might need to do: keep slim, avoid smoking and be sure to own your own home before you turn 50. Swedish researchers tracked 855 men, born in 1913, to try to work out the links between lifestyle and longevity. Of their original group, only ten made it to 100, but they had several things in common. All were non-smokers who had retained a trim physique; they had good posture, low cholesterol and low blood pressure. They had remained in active work until at least their mid-50s; they had drunk no more than four cups of coffee a day, and had been financially secure enough either to own their own home by the time they were 50 or to rent an expensive property. Genes seemed to count for something: they’d all had mothers who had lived into their 80s. However, paternal age of death seemed to make no difference. (The Week)

I’m not sure why people want to extend their lives to a point that they are infirm and need constant nursing. Nor do I quite get the intense desire of people who are at death’s door to be resuscitated at huge expense. I think the intelligent strategy is maybe to go on until lack of memory or energy ring the final bell. At that point I would personally like to have made the acquaintance of an enlightened doctor (or three) who would arrange my graceful and smiling exit, surrounded by admiring friends and relatives muttering “I had no idea he was that old. I thought he was in his fifties”. But most importantly: I couldn’t possibly leave my wife alone, wrestling with the computer. So we would leave together, our own music playing and friends making endearing speeches about us both. However, getting to 100 years old together is another, daunting, task.