104 years old and healthy

My oldest patient is 104 years old. She takes no medications and is very healthy. She is also very sharp mentally and remembers everything I have told her during the past 5 years I have been taking care of her. Her husband died a few decades ago and she lives with a caregiver. She is active and happy. A common misconception of aging is that as we get older, we decline physically and mentally. However it does not have to be that way. Certainly genetics play a major role: some people develop cancer earlier on in life and some people have a tendency toward diseases such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. However, there is so much we can do to assure a healthy life as we age. We may not live 104 years (in fact average life expectancy is 78 years old), however if we live a proactively healthy lifestyle we can remain happy, healthy, and active until we die.