The oldest of the old.

We seem to be hearing a lot more about old old age these days. Why is that?

Silver: What we've found is a pretty optimistic picture of why people would want to live to be 100. The body of research that helps us understand health in extreme old age has exploded.

Up until recently there weren't really a lot of very old people to study. The number of centenarians in the United States was about 10,000 in 1980 and it's now 50 to 60 thousand, and it's predicted that 3 million baby boomers are going to live to 100. There is one demographer who predicts that every female child born today has a 50-50 chance.

In your book you refer to centenarians as society's role models. What do you mean by that?

Silver: They are our role models for healthy living, both in terms of taking care of one's self physically and in terms of one's attitudes and approach to life.

What can we learn from them?

Silver: There certainly is a portion of longevity that's genetic. We all have, I think, a maximum potential life span, but most of us don't live to our maximum. It's not 100 for everybody, but it's well into the eighties.

Certainly the physical factors -- things like good diet, good exercise, keeping one's body active, not smoking, not drinking -- are important. They all affect our psychological well-being as well. The research in recent years on the effects of stress on health, the effects of humor on physiology, the effects of social relationships on health and longevity -- show us that there is a very strong connection between mind and body.

One really striking finding we had was that the centenarians are very, very good at handling stress. I think they may have a natural ability -- a temperament that they were born with -- that helps them handle stress. But they teach us that it is extremely important to learn how to do it.

What other characteristics do centenarians share?

Silver: They have an optimistic attitude. In general, I've found them to have very good senses of humor. And they have very strong social relationships.

You note that as more people stay healthy into very old age, it's likely to change society's attitudes about aging. What kinds of attitudes do you see among caregivers today?

Silver: I did nursing home consultation for about 20 years and there just seemed to be, first of all, the idea that dementia is inevitable with old age. The thinking was -- and sometimes still is -- if somebody showed some memory loss, they had Alzheimer's disease and therefore you couldn't do anything for them. But the truth is that many dementia symptoms are caused by medical illness or other medications they are taking. Other things can be missed, too, like depression. I have seen a couple cases of people with brain tumors who have been just thrown into that Alzheimer's wastebasket.

These are treatable conditions. And people's quality of life can be changed so dramatically.

How can better treatment be encouraged?

Silver: One thing I found really helpful was telling the nursing home staff about the lives of the people. I can remember one man who was just sort of ignored by everybody, and he was quite depressed. And he had been a singer on the Arthur Godfrey show, which was a very popular show many years ago. As soon as the staff heard that, they began talking to him and asking him questions, and it made a tremendous difference in his depression.

How else can supervisors encourage positive interactions?

Silver: [By providing] activities that are really stimulating for residents. Current events groups that are really participatory. Resident councils where people are able to get together and really talk about the nursing homes and have some input.

How do our negative ideas about aging affect us as we approach old age ourselves?

Silver: One problem is that older people are ageists also. They make us put limits on ourselves that aren't necessary, saying, "No, I can't do that because I'm too old," or "The reason that I have this pain is age." Working with the centenarians has changed my perspective. I am 66, and yet I feel as though I'm at the peak of my career, because I'm doing work that I love and it's getting some recognition.

Thinking about aging as aging--not as trying to stay young--and thinking of the opportunities in the ways that the centenarians have showed us can really help people to be much more positive about aging.