Generally to grow old: be content! You don’t need heaps of money, don’t fill a hole in yourself, that’s unfillable, live reasonable (!) healthy, do things in reasonable doses, learn your whole life and in particular: don’t try to get old. It’s not the length of the way, it’s what you experience during your journey.
Historically, a lot of walking and eating home-cooked meals that were high in veggies and fermented foods and probably eating lots of seafood and seaweed with other proteins being less frequent.
Milk wasn't even a part of school lunches until after the war, so people still kicking from the pre-war times mostly grew up without it.
I suspect, though, that life expediencies here are going to drop. Lots of fried food and such these days and I see more and more obese people.
My theory that I just made up without any research or noteworthy knowledge on the topic is that women have a slower metabolism (which is related to hormones as their muscle mass and density is lower).
The slower your metabolism and your caloric intake the less cells are replicating. When cells are being replaced there's always some degradation of genetic information involved. If you don't require much energy and thus keep your metabolism low your body is under less pressure. It's basically like a car with high mileage that has only seen constant slow long distance rides.
My guess is that it’s more social than biological. Women have a tendency to form closer, more emotionally available, and more plentiful relationships with others – I believe partially due to hormones/brain development and partially due to culture. They’ve done studies that show that having strong social relationships is important to lower stress and loneliness, which can lead to a longer life. I’m not sure if that’s all of it but it definitely couldn’t hurt to work on those things :)
Estrogen provides a great defense against heart disease, which is a huge killer. Now, this diminishes significantly after menopause, so it only explains things to a point.
Significantly lower female suicide rate probably also helps. Especially when plenty of those suicides occur quite young. Low numbers drag down an average quite quickly.
I suspect that is has to do with sexism. Risky jobs, hard labour, and fighting were traditionally things women weren’t allowed to do in many cultures. Their weaker physique makes most women unsuitable for certain life-shortening jobs too. Culturally, I believe men are also doing more stupid, risky shit in their youth, increasing the chances for life altering injuries dramatically.
I suspect we’ll see the age gap get smaller in fifty or sixty years with the progress we’re making. By that I mean women dying younger, not men living longer in comparison.
There are also other factors at play. Taller people die younger and women are usually shorter than men. Testosterone sucks for longevity and women have less of it. Not having a copy of everything on a second 𝕏 chromosome can also lead to issues in men (genetic things like colour blindness and various diseases, but also general long-term DNA survivability).
It’s possible there’s a regional or generational gap there. If you’re pushing 110 you probably haven’t worked in 40 years. You could even argue that the ones literally working themselves to death are the very ones paying for the older generation’s happy carefree lifestyle.
I suppose the older Japanese folks didn’t work in the current climate of working yourself literally to death on the job. I can’t believe how stressful work life sounds for some in Japan.
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