HOW TO LIVE TO BE 120

GOOD GENES AND ROLLING WITH LIFE'S PUNCHES HELP ACCOUNT FOR THE SURPRISING VIGOR OF THE OLDEST OLD

To grasp what it means to be 120 years old, consider this: a woman in the U.S. now has a life expectancy of 79 years. Jeanne Calment of Arles, France, reached that advanced age back in 1954, when Eisenhower was in the White House and Stalin had just passed from the scene. Twenty-two years later, at age 100, Calment was still riding her bicycle around town, having outlived both her only child and grandchild. And 20 years after that, she was charming the photographers and reporters who arrived in droves last week, along with the French Minister of Health, to mark...

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