Oldest Living WWII Vet (111) Shares His Secret to Longevity

[RIslander]

Richard Overton, WWII's oldest surviving American veteran at age 111 (109 at time of filming), shares his secrets on longevity based on simple living. He served five years in the South Pacific, 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion (Colored), as a black American during a time when they were treated as lesser soldiers yet still maintained his patriotism and vigor for life. At his age he is as sharp as they come both mentally and physically.

Not to turn this in to a political thread... but we're taking a huge hit as we lose men like this.

Richard Overton



EDIT: The (Colored) addition to his Battalion was officially part of the title.

 

[Suits]

This man has no secrets to longevity.

 

[Kabal]

This man has no secrets to longevity.

1. Don't die

 

[PuppetMaster]

Very soon, humans will live much longer than that.

 

[...]

Booze Heavy.
Smoke Heavy.
Zero political masturbation
Zero "fall of the West" talk.
The secret to a long-life.

No one talks about this
Most people are just Not willing to Come to Terms with this.

 

[RIslander]

This man has no secrets to longevity.

Are you suggesting this because his diet was less than stellar? Processed soups, dairy, fried catfish, whiskey and cigars? I'd agree with you there.

But what about low stress, not indulging on materialism and maintaining a strong social life?

 

[Disco_Volante]

I can't imagine making all those huge sacrifices just to see Britain/Europe descend into the opposite of everything they fought for.

Watching your buddies get mutilated in combat, the only solace would be thoughts like 'well at least my progeny will live in freedom in a great nation'. All to see it pissed away in barely a few decades. How insulting to their sacrifice.

 

[Jeans]

Interesting they focus so much on his status as a WWII vet. If he's 111, and joined the army in 1940, that would've made him 34 years old when he joined, and damn near 40 by the time the war was over. A grown man with some inkling of a perspective.

Also left out in that video but revealed by wikipedia -- no kids.

 

[RIslander]

Interesting they focus so much on his status as a WWII vet. If he's 111, and joined the army in 1940, that would've made him 34 years old when he joined, and damn near 40 by the time the war was over. A grown man with some inkling of a perspective.

Also left out in that video but revealed by wikipedia -- no kids.

I was skeptical that the video was manufactured. National Geographic has gone to shit over the last few years.. Especially with their transgender narrative. Either way I thought it was threadworthy. The man is no deep philosopher but I thought he passed on some old school wisdom that's lost on the modern generation.

 

[Transsimian]

Also left out in that video but revealed by wikipedia -- no kids.

Married twice though.

There is some evidence to suggest eunuchs have longer lifespans. Maybe undeveloped testes caused his infertility.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/men-can-live-20-years-longer-but-theres-a-high-cost-1678274234?IR=T

 

[RIslander]

We have the greatest skeptics, don't we folks?

 

[Kabal]

Also left out in that video but revealed by wikipedia -- no kids.

Married twice though.

There is some evidence to suggest eunuchs have longer lifespans. Maybe undeveloped testes caused his infertility.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/men-can-live-20-years-longer-but-theres-a-high-cost-1678274234?IR=T

Hm, interesting--I haven't thought about this in awhile (biological basis of longevity, and male vs. female differences across species), and have never really dug into it.

Accepting the hypothesis and assuming the eunuch effect is real (a different study mentioned in the article on castrati did not find an effect), I had two immediate reactions for humans:

1) Testosterone has a reputation as an immune system suppressor, and infections/diseases were more of a problem back then.
2) Eunuchs, not needing to compete for females, take fewer risks and live more stress-free than normal males. Normal males more reflect the behavior expressed by the "eggs are expensive; sperm is cheap" maxim.

And for humans and other XX/XY animals:
3) Two X-chromosomes may serve as a source of diversification in some way (males have one X, one Y).

These are just knee-jerk guesses.

 

[Suits]

We have the greatest skeptics, don't we folks?

There's obviously some exaggeration going on here about how old he is.

He's only 111.

No biggie.

 

[Paracelsus]

We have the greatest skeptics, don't we folks?

There's obviously some exaggeration going on here about how old he is.

He's only 111.

No biggie.

I can get better than that in a good century with TRT.

 

[Transsimian]

Hm, interesting--I haven't thought about this in awhile (biological basis of longevity, and male vs. female differences across species), and have never really dug into it.

Accepting the hypothesis and assuming the eunuch effect is real (a different study mentioned in the article on castrati did not find an effect), I had two immediate reactions for humans:

1) Testosterone has a reputation as an immune system suppressor, and infections/diseases were more of a problem back then.
2) Eunuchs, not needing to compete for females, take fewer risks and live more stress-free than normal males. Normal males more reflect the behavior expressed by the "eggs are expensive; sperm is cheap" maxim.

And for humans and other XX/XY animals:
3) Two X-chromosomes may serve as a source of diversification in some way (males have one X, one Y).

These are just knee-jerk guesses.

The mate competition theory and the social bonds theory have a lot of evidence too.

A study of Belgian monks and nuns found monks lived as long as nuns and significantly longer than the average man.

Like Richard Overton, elderly monks remained respected and valued members of the community with regular social interactions.
https://projectm-online.com/demographics/a-matter-of-lifestyle/

Men tend to die quickly after their wife, suggesting we need strong relationships and a place in the world even more than they do.

 

[Simeon_Strangelight]

Positive outlook on life.
Good genes.
Low caloric intake.
Little stress in life.
No or very few vaccines administered.
Little contact with doctors and their badly adjusted "treatments" and advice(trauma treatments and surgeries are great though).

Also he smoked cigars - tobacco is not as unhealthy as one might think. It is rather the 500+ additives in cigarettes that make it the toxic brew that everyone loves so much.

 

[thebassist]

Booze Heavy.
Smoke Heavy.
Zero political masturbation
Zero "fall of the West" talk.
The secret to a long-life.

No one talks about this
Most people are just Not willing to Come to Terms with this.

This man is definitely not on the soy. Most cannot understand this.

 

[Suits]

His woman may be 18 years younger than him, but she's a 3 at best.

I'm not a national war hero and even I can bang 5's regularly with little effort.

This guy has nothing to teach me.

 

[polar]

Sounds like he needs less whiskey and more craft beers in his diet.

 

[Fortis]

Replace cigars and church with chasing asian women and the gym and I think I'm going to live to be at least 150.