Masterpiece Living: taking wellness to the next step?

We learned that lifestyle—the choices we make about where and how we live—determines 70% of physical aging and 50% of mental aging. We discovered that it was never too late to make a significant difference in how we age. And we found out that certain characteristics and lifestyles were associated with high levels of functioning well into the eighth, ninth, and even tenth decades of life. The MacArthur Foundation Study called this high-level functioning successful aging as opposed to usual aging, which conformed to the stereotype of progressive decline. This groundbreaking study, and the ever-increasing volume of similar research, smashed this stereotype of aging and presented us with the challenge to put this knowledge into practice.