Life Begins at 60

The days of our years are threescore years and ten.

--The 90th Psalm.

And the Lord said . . . his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

--Genesis, 6:3.

Modern gerontologists (old-age specialists) take a firm stand in favor of the second of these dictums. This week a doctor published a book undertaking to show that it is now possible for most people to live to be at least 100. Its title: You Are Younger Than You Think (Duell, Sloan & Pearce; $2.75). The author is Dr. Martin Gumpert of Manhattan, refugee from Nazi Germany, sometime German soldier, plastic surgeon, dermatologist, biographer, poet and the model for the character Mai-Sachme in Thomas Mann's Joseph the Provider (TIME, July 3).*

At 46, Dr. Gumpert confesses that he feels old beyond his years, that he wrote his hopeful book partly to reassure him self. He begins by noting that the average U.S. life span, now 63, has increased 15 years since 1900, that already there are tens of thousands of people who live to be over 100 without half trying. Nature, says he, seems to have intended man to live at least a century, and Dr. Gumpert sees no reason why the limit cannot be raised to 150.

Hale Columbians. As an example of what can be done, Dr. Gumpert cites the class of 1900 of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. When the class met for its annual dinner in 1940, only 100 of the original 175 were still alive ; seven had died in the past year. An alarmed member jumped to his feet and moved the appointment of a Committee on Longevity. This group discovered, among other things, that a member who' was a gallstone specialist had a gallstone without knowing it, that a hernia specialist had a hernia. The mortality rate was reduced (only one died last year) and of the 94 present survivors, ranging in age up to 80, all but ten have refused to retire.

Most old people die of vascular (blood vessel) diseases. Dr. Gumpert asserts that these and other diseases of age can be prevented or mitigated by modern geriatrics (the science of diseases of the aged). He also places great hope in Russian Biochemist Alexander Bogomoletz' ACS serum (TIME, Jan. 17), which may lengthen life by delaying the aging of connective tissue. But man's best hope of living longer, says Dr. Gumpert, is in his mental attitude toward death. The present system of life-insurance rates, retirement, pensions, etc., in Gumpert's view, "makes life an embarrassing preparation for the hour of death."

Some Gumpertian suggestions for longevity :

P: Pay no attention to formulas against drinking, smoking or worry. Moderate indulgence is often beneficial, and "constructive worry" keeps a man alive. "Living is an aggressive job."

P: Don't retire. An oldster needs challenging (but not too heavy) work. "Idleness is [a] ticket to death."

P: An active sex life (but not too active) can be enjoyed until a much more advanced age than is commonly supposed; it need not end with the change of life. Illadvised: December-May marriages; they often kill the older partner.

P: Eat fewer calories, more vitamins and minerals. Good foods for oldsters: mild cheeses, milk, lean meat, butter, scrambled eggs, macaroni, well-cooked vegetables, stewed fruits, raw bananas. Blacklisted: hard-boiled eggs, raw or smoked meat, raw vegetables, rich cheeses. Dr. Gumpert advises breakfast in bed, a hearty lunch, light supper.

P: Avoid very hot or cold baths or prolonged bathing; best routine for oldsters is a daily sponging with warm water.

Says Dr. Gumpert: "Old age and senility are no more necessarily related than infancy and rickets." At 79, Michelangelo began to write sonnets; at 73, Galileo published his discoveries on the revolutions of the moon; at 82, Goethe finished Faust; at 88, John Wesley preached every day; at 78, Franklin became U.S. Ambassador to France; after 70, Verdi composed his great Othello and Falstaff; after 70, Cornelius Vanderbilt made more than $100,000,000. "After the critical age between 50 and 60 has been passed," observes Dr. Gumpert, "there often seems to be a new flowering of gifts and talents, colored by all the splendor of the setting sun."

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