Want to Live to 100? These Centenarians Are Sharing Their Secrets to Long Life

Call them “super-agers.” They’ve won the longevity lottery with the right mix of genetics and biochemistry. But wait, there’s exciting news for the rest of us: Anybody can get pretty darn close. Turns out there’s no secret to living to 100.

“We all have a genetic blueprint that, on average, should let us live to 90 in great shape,” says Thomas Perls, M.D., professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center, who’s tracked thousands of 100-plussers in his New England Centenarian Study.