Lithgow said sleep was one of the most important factors, as it turns on molecular processes that initiate repairing and recovery in the body.
Cohen said one of her secrets to longevity is sleeping more than eight hours a night, as well as being an avid reader and conversationalist. Her family has always worked past retirement age, including her grandmother, who died while in her 80s in a hallway of the building she owned on her way to fix the plumbing in a tenant’s apartment.
“I always knew I would work forever,” she said, adding that her work has allowed her to be generous with her family and travel when she wants.
Cohen’s career in law – including the new firm she founded with her daughter at age 88 – has given her a sense of purpose, which Lithgow said can often be a benefit for people working in their later years.
That purpose is what drove Rose to keep practising medicine for so long. What he loved most about his job was seeing patients, some of whom started coming to him when they were teenagers and stayed well into their adult years.
“They were still coming to see me 50 years later, which shows you what a bad job I did,” he joked.
Rose said the thought never occurred to him to retire earlier because he liked what he was doing, and because he felt like his patients and society were relying on him as a physician.
“I guess I felt that no one could do without me,” he said.
Besides a sense of purpose, Lithgow said other factors that can help guard against ageing are good diet, exercise and rest.
But the strongest protectors against accelerated ageing, he said, are a person’s income and availability of resources, including health care. Genetics, meanwhile, don’t play too much of a role.
“If you start with an ability to access the best possible healthcare, then you’re already having an advantage over the vast majority of people,” Lithgow said.
Rose remains in good health at the age of 95, though he does not know what sets him apart from many of his peers who never made it to that age, let alone practising medicine.
“I really haven’t the faintest idea as to what I’ve done,” he said. “I don’t smoke. I have a schnapps every now and then.”
Rose said his patients for the most part did not know how old he was, or they did not seem to care. But some were shocked to find out about the 95-year-old doctor.
“The reason is I haven’t aged,” he said. “I don’t look any different.”
