The secret to ageing well

The Orange Seniors Village Hub was abuzz last Wednesday as a large proportion of the 150-strong membership attended the o cial opening celebration of the refurbished facility.

One of 12 Seniors Connected Village Hubs being funded by the Australian Government’s Seniors Connected Program, the goal is to create an autonomous facility, guided by its members, to help alleviate the loneliness and social isolation experienced by many older people, particularly those who live alone.

And it’s staying social and keeping active that’s the key to ageing well and being happy in retirement, according to Marcus Pearce, guest speaker at the Orange Hub’s o cial opening and host of the ‘100 Not Out’ podcast.

A former journalist, Marcus has spent the past decade interviewing hundreds of the world’s happiest and long-lived people to find the secret to ageing well.

“We’ve been interviewing ‘graceful agers’, people that defy the ageing stereotype… I think we’re Australia’s longest-running podcast on ageing well and longevity,” Marcus said. “It started out when, I was a vegan and I thought that vegans lived the longest, and my co-host, who’s a chiropractor and naturopath, thought that meat eaters would live the longest,” he explained.

“But what we found out was the people living the longest are the people that have a great social life, they move their bodies and they have a great sense of purpose.”

We all age and get old, Marcus said, and we need to learn to enjoy the ageing process, rather than feeling like it’s all downhill.

But after all his many interviews and research into ageing, he believes too often the conversations we have around getting older focus on the wrong things.

“We think that diet is the fountain of youth and that, living in a wealthy nation like Australia, that our bank account is a measure of our status,” Marcus said.

“But you look at people that are living the best, long lives; it’s not about wealth, it’s