Do you want to live to be 100?

Don’t worry – those of us who are adults now probably won’t live to be a hundred eyars old. But babies being born today, may very well reach 100, according to a report first published in the medical magazine, Lancet and subsequently picked up by the general media.

A lot of things will have to change. The first that comes to mind is the idea of retireemtn at 60. What are you going to do with the next 40 years? Already businesses are confronting the challenge of older workers who want to keep on working at any job that does not require physical strength. Also, today, with all the modern information technology available to everyone, many jobs can be done at home. The problem with that is direct supervision. Not only is the worker not in an office where a supervisor can watch what he is doing, but there is the added concern that the supervisors are invariably younger than the older workers. Many young people are hostile to older workers, as many employees once were, until they discovered that older workers are more reliable, less apt to take days off, have fewer accidents and more committed to the job.

Older workers have become so commonplace in America, that there is no longer any mandatory (nor customary) retirement age. In most developed European countries, the retirement age is still set at 65. Older workers you have retired but are considering re-entering the workforce, in either America or Europe may need to go back to school to keep up with the modern technology before they apply for a job in today’s high tech world.

Many older workers like the idea of part-time work. If more part-time jobs were created, it would also be a boon to mothers with young children who would prefer to have more time at home to raise their families, but need to work. In the current financial recession with high unemployment, one-third of American women are their family’s sole support. 75% of all jobs that were lost were held by men.

Part of the rise in the numbers of older workers is due to better health among the elderly. Part is due to the gradual breaking down of the stereotype of the older workers as being less productive and less willing to learn new things or take risks, than younger workers. A study conducted under the auspices of the American Economic Review last year at the University of California refutes that image. Seniors (over 50) pitted against a group of juniors (under 30) in decision-making tests found that the seniors were more willing to take risks, were more cooperative with their colleagues, and outperformed the juniors in a competitive word game. The study also releaved that mixed groups of young and older workers prove to be more competitive than homogenous groups of either young or old. which suggests that employers would do well to consider a range in the age of their workforce.

Pyschologist Joyce Brothers once pointed out that the so-called “generation gap” doesn’t exist anymore. Old and young share the same information. The old have equal access to television, computers and the cellphone.

To reach a productive one hundred, it would be wise, according to gerontologists, to start planning for it in your middle age. Not only think of what might like to do in the future — many elderly change to a send and even a third career – but develop the habit of regular exercise, and watch what you eat, so you don’t gain extra weight. Obesity is serious health problem in the US and can shorten life.

A fact not generally known outside medical and scientific circles is that the brain can actually keep regenerating. New cells (neurons) develop with appropriate stimulus, especially in the learning and memory centers. And the elderly can get physical “highs” from exercise that lightens the tendency to depression.

The most important attitude to enjoy a healthy old age, according to the gerontologists, is “self-esteem.” For some that means keeping on working. For others, it means pride in what you have already accomplished. –Beth Day Romulo, Philippine Panorama