A 101-year-old neurologist's LONGEVITY SECRETS: Howard Tucker, M.D. | mbg Podcast

stay happy enjoy your family life if you're lucky as I am and enjoy your work now you don't want to stay here happy in you I had a woman patients 42 years old whose boss was such a tyrant as she would drive around the auto agency where she worked several times before she could brace yourself to go in and she had a stroke at 42 and use your attention tension also comes from hatred if you hate is unless you're abusing them physically and hates it eats you up one and ASAP the person that you hate so give up your hatreds put her aside to recognize don't be judgmental don't hate them for for generalized reasons and again free life [Music] hey everyone what's the secret sauce of longevity according to Dr Howard Tucker a 101 year old neurologist the key to living a longer life is quite simple no special superfoods trendy treatments or biohacking tools here just regular movement purpose and a youthful mindset and a Friday night Martini for good measure let me repeat Howard is a 101 year old practicing neurologist and he's constantly planning for the future in fact he goes as far to say that retirement is the enemy of longevity it's such an honor to have Howard here on the show he has so much wisdom to share and I think we can all learn a thing or two about his balanced daily routine Howard welcome thank you very much pleasure to be here it is an honor to have you it's Friday at 1pm Eastern and rumor has it I've read you have a ritual which is a Friday evening Martini does that still hold true I love my martinis they're smaller than they used to be since my wife can't tolerate anymore big big doses of it so is that is that Weekly or is that daily what what time of day I've what's in it I'm very curious after I come home from the hospital and she has finished working too we sit down and please ourselves with a martini and what time is that usually at about seven wow okay so you're in the hospital you're working on you're in the hospital walk us through your your work day well at the moment my work day is to get on the computer screen and do expert testimony Expert Medical testimony since I have a law degree as well as my medical degree and I just enjoy medical legal expertise Forge me chance to learn because I want to support a point I look it up either in books screen that's my day at the moment I'm looking for another teaching teaching or practice job since the last place I worked just closed down I think they went bankrupt and um no longer a hospital after 175 years wow so you're 102. how old is your wife no no I'm 101 101 sorry when did you turn 102 next next July I just turned out here at one you just turned 101. do you know what are you going to do to celebrate if you've planned your party for next year yet we had a big party on my 90s shift and my Hundred I mean big my 91 it's just my 101 is just another birthday my wife is 11 years younger I met her when she was in med school and my students I looked across the room and I said that's a cute girl with a lot of freckles she's adorable and then this was at Columbia and I didn't date her then six months later I saw her on the street by chance he was coming back from the dentist and I went to pick up my newspapers we started talking and and I she was a good sport I took her to qxr is that the name of the station that had classical music in Washington in New York and I took her ice skating she didn't really like but she went along with me and said we got married four kids 10 grandkids congratulations so how many years have you been married 66 years wow so what what's the what's the secret to it to a 66-year marriage Kia's compromised as my father would say and I've adopted it my father would say when I'm coming home somewhere driving home from work I think boy I'm looking for forward to a good meal read a book I get home my wife says let's go to the movies so we compromise we'll go to the movies and I can follow that with phone number Ogden Nash Ogden Nash was a silly poet he wrote short poems probably in the 50s he died in 77 and he was talking about marriage is to the husband if you want to keep in your loving cup if you're wrong admit it if you're right jack up I think that's so perfect he's the one who wrote to the the poem candies Dandy wines fine Liquors quicker yeah he's he's he was remarkable no if nobody talks about him anymore Fame is the fasting famous of passing event yes so I totally agreed you know we talk a lot about longevity on this show and on my buddy green but you're you're living it you're doing it and I think most of our listeners including myself are curious you know what's your secret you know at the highest level what what do you do what don't you do so for one you enjoy a martini with your wife after work which is fantastic walk us through what what are some of the other things you do and some of the things you don't do in terms of your lifestyle well I have a job enjoy my life I would start rounds at five in the morning usually for two reasons one the other doctors who make rounds that the few doctors who make browsers that morning are not interested in Converse silly conversations and two is a very effective time to work patients are drowsy the nurses don't complain about the patients patients don't right about the nurses and you have very efficient time to look at the chart reads a patient even though they're somewhat drowsy but I enjoy my work work all day go to the hospital in the morning and in the afternoon I'm in the office and I go home and enjoy my evening either reading or watching television made me PBS we see so many English movies at what I see an American car driving on the television screen I think he's driving on the wrong side he's driving in the wall he should be driving on the right side even though I have an mg that dates back 1948 and it's a right hand drive I got that when they first imported bars from England they imported 1500 roadsters mgtc as they weren't sure Americans were going to take on roadsters like that so they didn't bother changing the right hand drive to left-hand drive I love it Austin my grandson works with me on it has cleaned we have a great time his father Peter too and that's it I have a regular evening go to bed I either read or go to bed so it sounds like you work so you have not retired you enjoy time with your wife you sleep and I'm assuming you're a good sleeper would you classify yourself as a good sleeper yeah and diet you know we live in a world where there's Super Foods and Miracle diets so to speak I'm curious what what do you eat well our breakfast for example begins with a citrus during season Citrus during the winter melon during the summer and then I put the breakfast on the table a parrot so what I do then is cut up banana strawberries in season blueberries I like raspberries my wife doesn't I just keep those on the side and some milk skim milk no two percent milk is what we use and that's breakfast sometimes cereal and then tea we drink a lot of tea you know they talk about depends where you are in in the circle of life some articles say tea is better as it helps clean out the arteries and others say coffee is better well I just don't have having the right to taste of coffee so we're tea drinkers we used to get wonderful concussions from England prepared we learned this from a psychiatrist who became head of Psychiatry at the Cleveland Clinic and his father was a famous minister in England and his mother would send tea it was a combination of various teas and we drank tea all the time of that wonderful mixture you know a pound of this a quarter pound of that all mixed up and we would order that by money order and suddenly they we got a letter saying gone away we've never found them again so we have to stay with it with teas in Americas some will Tea Merchants the world of the rest of the meals I usually skip lunch if you skip lunch it's not so important if you skip it for enough days in a row you're not hungry you're more efficient of course you're not drowsy and then I go home for dinner well we eat fish we do a lot of vegetables even broccoli President Bush didn't like Bush the Elder HW Bush didn't like broccoli and rarely do we have pink or pies for easier we just don't sometimes we eat another piece of fruit or sometimes we don't have anything although we do cheat and take a little ice cream I don't think that's so bad for you so it sounds like for for breakfast you've got your your milk and your berries you skip lunch you're a tea drinker and then the evening for dinner sounds like fish vegetables occasional ice cream and enjoying a martini hey occasional meat there's no question we eat and eat okay you know some people some vegetarians feel they prolong their life by being vegetarian the Irish playwright he be shaw he lived to 94. he was proud that he never great meat never drank coffee never drank any stimulus like Wick or liquor I think he was depressed when he said oh if I could eat one steak I would die and then I asked Winston Churchill same question to what do you owe your longevity and he said I start the morning with an Armenia Brandy I've had a media Brandy as a proper name brand name has nothing to do with armenia's Armenia and then he says I drink all day I smoke 12 to 12 8 to 12 cigars a day and there's our Churchill cigars which are almost 12 inches long they're very big and he said and I can't wait till I get home for a meat meal and with great Eucharist do I say I'm smarter than they are I just say everything in moderation including moderation I'm a race so you know I think you're hitting on an important point there are many factors that contribute to to one's longevity you know there's being in a loving relationship there's purpose uh there's nutrition there's sleep there are a number of factors in your estimation of all the things we've talked about what do you think is the is the secret sauce in your opinion I would say well I go back to Erasmus 15th century Dutch philosopher who said study every day as if you were to live forever please day as if you were to die tomorrow and I think that's a good one then stay stay happy and interested in your work stay vibrant I exercise I get on the treadmill I used to run outside but it's too rough for me now so I do it on the treadmill I do two miles two to three miles the times a week and um stay happy enjoy your family life if you're lucky as I am and enjoy your work now you don't want to stay here happy in your work I had a woman patient 42 years old whose boss was such a tyrant as she would drive around the auto agency where there she worked several times before she could brace yourself to go in and she had a stroke at 42 and reduce your attention tension also comes from hatred if you hate is unless you're abusing them physically and hey it's eats you up one and hates up the person that you hate so give up your hatreds put her inside to recognize don't be judgmental don't hate them for for generalized reasons and again happy life sounds like we need to be better at letting go of the the emotional junk in our everyday life that tends to accumulate perfect choice of words so what do you make of the biohacking movement right now where there's all sorts of treatments injections therapies uh that are looking to extend a person's life and they have nothing to do with letting go of their emotional junk or being in a loving relationship they're all a lot of injectables a lot of treatments what what's your take on these shortcuts if you will several things we talked about a general diet meat but all about some meat you know medicine has gone so it could reverse itself I was in med school they said use Demerol don't use morphine now of course use our feet and you don't use Demerol I would say in the early days don't eat butter eat margarine now they say eat margarine I mean eat butter don't eat Woody Allen kind of said that in the movie sleeper where he wakes up 100 or 200 years later and they say to him we're going to feed you with steak and butter as light as research shows that this is best and in those days everyone the other thing I think is important is no cigarettes of course cigarettes and vitamins run a similar course in the history of of medicine and it shows the fallibility of Physicians they are not infallible although many think they are for example cigarettes when I was in medicine for many years afterwards the cigarettes of physician with a cigarette dangling from his mouth would say to a patient use cigarettes you know curb your appetite quiet your nerves and they would walk into a patient's room with a cigarette dangling from their lips and you go to a medical meeting you couldn't see the screen because of the blue haze and now you know where cigarettes are they recognize for what it was now the reverse not the reverse but the opposite of Defense occurred with vitamins at one point the use of vitamins was lowest among Physicians they just didn't believe in them and now and they were the fewest number of people taking it but now they take it they they're equal at least to to the general population even more so concerned about the need for extra vitamins so that's the progress in medicine or CT scans and MRIs have changed the whole approach to Medical yes so look you're very sharp and something that's top of mind for a lot of people is their cognitive Health specifically cognitive decline what what are some of we know a lot more about cognitive decline and brain health what are some of your secrets are there things you've done that that you think have allowed you to stay as sharp as you are well genetics is one thing my father would drive over to have dinner with us after my mother died or before but I'm talking about now would need to drive over he was 95 and vital I think genetics is a head start it's no more than a start as I said before I think everything in moderation no cigarette it's important interest in your family interest in your work and continue to be productive as I told you about Erasmus I think that's a very persistent happy thought brilliant thought back to the 1500s how does this feel to be a hundred and one you feel any different I don't feel any different I see I feel vibrant my family is for the moment taking my car but I expect to drive again just done after the martinis no not after the martinis no no that would be a No-No I use it they forced me to use a cane particularly and I don't do the thing but I'm not when I'm feeling balanced but I use it on concrete and on grass other than that I feel like like I always felt interesting happy moderate living what do you think we get wrong about aging perception of what aging means when I was young 35 looked old now 65 looks like a child it's all perspective I can remember when Alzheimer's disease was called pre-senal dementia because Dr Alzheimer in about 1905 published an article on aggressive dementia and people in the late 40s and early 50s and in this sea all precin all dementia even though the pathology under the microscope of both pre-senal and senile were exactly the same and then as you you suggested perspective changes when I was at the Cleveland Clinic in my fellowship I had a 67 year old patient and I presented him to my chief 67 and I said this man has a senile dementia well I heard plenty from him about this seniority is 67. now I think he was right but now they call it all one disease Alzheimer's himself didn't want it to be called Alzheimer's he wanted to be called something like chronic cortical atrophy but now of course his name is epidemic you know what makes me think given your your sense of history is there do you have a favorite decade that's a very difficult question I'm not sure I love my Navy time I was very fortunate they appointed me chief of Neurology for the Atlanta Fleet Atlantic Fleet and I had to examine any patient who was being discharged from neurological reasons he said whose home was east of the Mississippi I had to examine him and that was a delight and also I had three grand rounds a week professors in Philadelphia from Jefferson Medical College hours of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple and um just a delightful experience having learning from these extra special people they're all stars that was trying my happiest decade how much do you think mindset plays a role and Longevity sounds like you're an optimist that's why I'm asking oh I'm sure it is my I haven't several friends are now gone who always talked about irian Ammo leave it alone in the exact same age and they both died earlier and I actually think I'm going to live forever I know it's not reality I have no no fear of dying it sounds like you plan you're constantly planning for the future I'm always planning for this future that's quite right I'd like to go hiking again in the Alps where I was once I don't know if that's wise but thinking about it do you think part of our problem with longevity is culturally in America there's a there's a desire to retire and things tend to go south from a health perspective once people retire and lose purpose and connection and a routine and so on I think it retirement Remains the enemy of ranjeb so sure about that you read every day something in the newspapers someone retired six months ago and he's dead now I just can't emphasize that enough to stay optimistic happy and interested interesting in your world and I'm curious is there one thing you can't live without besides my wife yes good good first answer well I think the computer makes life easier you know many years ago an attorney from Columbus Mia case mother was cirrhosis which he said was made worse by an injury and I said at that time there's no such thing he wrote me a check for certain amount and said go study it I spent a week in the library using getting a bursitis in my left arm pulling out books in the medical Library which was a three-story Medical Library in Cleveland Maurice and I found some that supported his posture more recently I saw another patient with the same history of trauma made EMS worse horse and I went in the computer and within three minutes I had my information so I think the computers spoiled us it's hard to go back when she gets someplace my father would tell the story about when he was living in England or he was reared he would first go to a shower that everyone used in the sinner's town or a bath and then he got enough money to go to his semi-private path then he got to the private public path couldn't imagine ever going back to the other ones I think that's progress I can't imagine I would go back to persistent look they're looking at books and articles in the library so you're taking time to do interviews like the the one you're you're doing with me today and I think it's just so incredible that you're doing this there are a lot of lessons that we can all learn as I said a lot of people want to live as long as you have and and be cognitively sharp and active and happy joyful and I'm curious you know people are listening and they're gonna form their own takeaways what what do you want people to take away from you and your story and what in your life I would say first of all no cigarettes that's yes yes we're there we're there that's my first thought no cigarettes stay vital stay interested in your work she do retire from a job think in terms of meaningful volunteering that's acceptable because it maintains your interest and Your vitality I picked friends who are younger than I am I father did this my mother died you you and I'm about the same way like I have friends good friends now or in their 70s and 80s and they keep me on I continue to exercise a little gets harder and harder to do two miles three miles I do it and um I think that's it stay interested stay happy moderation and food moderation and bows no cigarettes and you know I I like that you mentioned volunteering I think that's such a wonderful place to start for anyone even those who are maybe a little depressed maybe going through a hardship it is just so wonderful to help people to the to contribute to a person or a cause that is bigger than oneself I think it is underestimated I share that feeling with you completely it is underestimated and it's important and if you had to leave our audience with advice on adversity you know adversity strikes adversity is part of life there's no getting around it you know adversity can take people down uh and for other people they become stronger they become more resilient I'm curious if you have any thoughts on adversity because I know you've had some during your lifetime first thing I would say is we had a carpenter a genius Carpenter and we were building when we moved into our preferred house which is now 100 years old and he was he was a he was the Immigrant and he said it should go in this ear and out the other and I think that's a wonderful wonderful concept adversity there's always a light a light at the end of the tunnel like you remember when I broke up with a girl in my 20s I thought the sun would never shine again I'll Preposterous you have to look and recognize that fast the adversity can be corrected is there anything else you would like to you say that we haven't discussed today and I will add that there's a Kickstarter for a documentary that your your grandson Austin is working on which I encourage everyone to contribute to as they're profiling you or worthy cause and many life lessons and we'll link to it in the show notes but in addition to to that is there anything you'd like to add that we haven't touched on today you are so thorough no I can't I won't get into the politics with you we don't do politics here that's my secret to longevity yeah we don't do Politics on this show that's why this show has longevity that's good that being arbitrary as dangerous for you too so respect other people's judgment even though it's fallacious it just accepted as such as that part of them well I I think you're hitting on a larger point yeah look America is so divided and it's unfortunate and you know I always and this is often more diff more difficult in real life than it is said that I always try to encourage people to approach conversations that may be uh extraordinarily uh difficult or tense when someone's challenging your beliefs with curiosity and empathy and that's hard to do it is hard to do but you think it's true and realize they're sincere in their beliefs and you don't have to incorporate them you don't have to like them but don't be judgmental be arbitrary about it well said Howard thank you so much I'm excited to celebrate we'll have to have you back after 102. one thing I'll look forward to it

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Length: 28min 42sec (1722 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023