There’s a village in China where centenarians are ten times more common than in the United States. Bapan, China is called “Longevity Village” thanks to this density of  90+ and 100+ year old residents. Most of these older villagers are living long and healthy lives. Aging very slowly, there is essentially no signs of obesity, cancer, heart disease, or dementia.

Dr. John Day has written a book on Longevity Village that shares insights for living a long and healthy life. The villagers of Bapan have diet that is free of added sugars and processed foods. They get plenty of exercise with many 90 and 100 year olds still working in their gardens.

But four attitudinal elements are key as well:

• Smile more (baseball players who smile in their playing card photographs live 7 years longer on average than those that don’t smile)
• Rethink stress (70% of doctor visits in the US are stress-related)
• Don’t forget to play (exercising in itself is not playing)
• Look forward to aging (people who embrace the aging process live 8 years longer than those that don’t)

Source: WSJ