Last year, researching my book “Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives,” I visited five of the world’s healthiest countries — Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain — to see how they keep older adults active, engaged, purposeful, and healthy.
I picked these countries because they have some of the longest healthy life expectancies in the world (in some cases, a decade longer than the U.S.). And none of them the most ideal environments for aging: Singapore is hot, crowded, and has a notoriously competitive work environment, for instance. In Spain, obesity and smoking rates are significant. If these countries can succeed, so can we.
At a community development center in Kanazawa, Japan, older adults teach, volunteer, run the restaurant, or just hang out with young people and those with Down syndrome. In Korea, lifelong learning is written into the Constitution. Singapore is building a whole “health district.” Italy taps into the wisdom and energy of seniors through volunteering.
After seeing how these countries are rewriting the rules on aging, I’m doing five things to live a longer, happier life.
In other countries, definitions of “old age” are fluid, tied to individual circumstances rather than arbitrary dates. At 62, I can easily have another 20 or more years of good health, and unlike many older adults, I am going to plan them with the same seriousness of purpose I did the last 20.
