Does anyone actually know of anyone who had an unhealthy lifestyle but lived to a ripe old age?

It's one of my pet hates, the "positive thinking" idea.

Obviously it's better for general wellbeing, and better to live that way, but I don't suppose any of the long lived people gave it much thought.

They just lived how they wanted.

That made me laugh. 🤭 not that it’s funny.

After a lifetime of smoking my mil gave up in her 60 s and put what she Woukd have spent on cigarettes into a jar.
After she filled the jar she opened her first ever savings account and was rightly proud and astonished at how much she had saved and how much she had spent over the years.

I think there is evidence that having a positive attitude to life and staying in connection with family and friends do have big health benefits - and would go on the healthy side of the scales, even if things like smoking go on the unhealthy side. Still a good idea not to smoke though!

Yes, my neighbour pays about £16 a pack silverlining
That's enough to give me a heart attack!!

If they smoke 20 a day.

Yes actually my dad ate Fray Bentos pies and smoked a pipe he loved to 92 but he had an awesome positive attitude to life. He did have bowel cancer and blood cancer but he still made it to 92

You'd better take up golf, just to be on the safe side.

Out of curiosity I just checked and Tesco charge over £15 for a pack of 20 rothmans. That’s over £100 pw.

Longevity in my family Oldest lived to 104 perfectly switched on till the end. Many in their late 90’s No special diets smoked drank & played golf !
I hope I’m the same 81 yrs now Fit & healthy Do watch my diet tho

I think there is an element of pot luck.
Perhaps due to genes, maybe not.

I don't know them personally, but just look at The Rolling Stones and their druggy lifestyles.

My grandparents all died youngish (early sixties) yet didn't lead unhealthy lifestyles. My parents are still alive but are ill - my mum with bowel cancer, yet has eaten extremely healthily all her life.

I think it depends on the person's makeup, not so much their lifestyle.

I watched a documentary with June Brown ( dot cotton easterners). She lived into her 90s smoked for 70 years but she did swim every single day and was still swimming in her 90s so maybe that kept her lungs healthy.

If only we were all guaranteed that quality of life as we age.

My paternal grandpa smoked and ate everything, died in his sleep at age 97, had never been ill in the whole of his life. He fell over playing tennis at age 75, broke his leg but recovered without a limp.

Yes ! My grandfather born in Jarrow 1901- fix the March . He had a strong Geordie accent and he owned a business building the towers , steel work roofs and cooling towers for Scunthorpe Steel Works just after the war . He fell off a roof and crushed his foot and then after that became an illegal then legal bookmakers ( racing ) . He got to 91 years old despite getting up to 26 stones at only 5’2””. He smoked a lot of Oark Drivd Plain cigarettes , drank lots of whiskey . When he had a slight stroke at 79 the nurses made him lose 11 stones so was still a rotund 15 stones . I loved him !

nanna8

I could point you to plenty of health nuts who had a short life,too. I think it is really the luck of the draw but obviously smoking and drinking heavily won’t help.

My Uncle who was the Chief Of Staff at Victoria Hospital Vancouver Island, always said that he'd 'buried more joggers' than anyone else!

If my family’s history is anything to go by I should either be dead already or will live to my 90’s. My DM died at 43 following breast cancer, which our GP, believed was due to the shock following my father’s death at the age of 38. Several aunts and uncles died early ie mid 30’s to mid 40’s whilst others lived to late 90’s. Most of whom didn’t exercise, ate what would now be classed as an unhealthy diet, and enjoyed a nightcap of malt whisky. My DD death was accidental and not due to poor health and his twin brother lived till his late 70’s or perhaps later.

Most of life is uncertain and health is at least partly about tipping the odds in your favour by living in a healthy way. But there are no guarantees and some people live unhealthily and still live a long time. It is still a good idea to live in a healthy way - it feels good and does tip the scales towards a longer healthier life.

My mother in law is 94 and thriving. Drinker , smoker, loads of salt and addicted to cakes !!!

That's a triumph over adversity.

A definite yes from me - my grandad! He lived until his mid 90's and seemed to live more or less on Players full strength cigarettes, cans of Newcastle Brown ale and occasionally bread and cheese. He was a real old country boy.

My lovely mum lived to 92 she smoked and drank half a bottle of wine a day up until she went in a care home after a fall at 89. She brought the three of us up on her own from 6,9 and 13 years old being widowed at 40 . So we never begrudged her little indulgences.

Hi
My mother’s brother Asher: caught Polio when he was 2, lived in the East End of London. My grandfather died at 38 leaving my grandma with 3 young children. In those days it was just the start of the NHS. There were no social benefits. The family clubbed together and got my grandma a bric à brac stall. Life was very hard.
Back to my uncle, he came out of a mental institution (there were no homes for physically disabled in those days, so they were put in with mentally sick! He was in Caterham. It became too much for my grandma so she brought Asher home. He only ever ate baked beans, fish fingers and a lentil & sausage soup my grandmother used to make !
He lived through 3 mugging, where the evil scum took his callipers away! He lived in awful times (almost Dickensian) but lived until 86!!!!
My amazing uncle Asher. No education, taught himself to read & write! Taught himself to repair radios, taught himself to play the accordion!
My amazing uncle Asher

My grandmother smoked Woodbines and had a bottle of Guiness a day as recommended by her gp and lived to a ripe old age. Cancer (not lungs) got her in the end but was not related to her lifestyle.
She lived alone, ran a boarding house until she was quite old and kept active. I think activity (body and mind) is the answer.

I think your life is mapped out for you the min you are born so whatever happens it was meant to be, some people smoke drink take recreational drugs live for a very long time others that try to live a healthy lifestyle can die early, rather than focus on anything like that as it’s swings and roundabouts for me I just wake up do the best I can each day and thank my lucky stars I’m still here