EJ (Edna Jane) (3:31)

I'm a 90 year old woman who is enjoying her life. My name is Edna Jane, but I always introduce myself as ej. I worked at Georgetown and we had. There were three of us on the floor that went by signatures dj, BJ and ej. And we were all on at the same time. It drove us and everyone crazy.

Maggie Penman (3:58)

Before EJ retired, she was a nurse.

EJ (Edna Jane) (4:00)

I was all over the place. I was in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kentucky. My mother used to say she was going to get an address booked just for me. I like to go around, but when I moved here, I moved to stay. I was tired of moving around and so. And I've never been sorry.

Maggie Penman (4:21)

So eventually she bought the house she now lives in, which she renovated herself.

EJ (Edna Jane) (4:27)

It was a total wreck, plaster hanging off. And someone had put brown paint over the entire house, including the floors. And I lived in it while I did it. I couldn't afford to live anyplace else.

Maggie Penman (4:41)

EJ didn't grow up with money. And there's a reminder of that right over her antique gas stove, this old metal pail.

EJ (Edna Jane) (4:49)

The aluminum bucket was my father's lunch bucket. He worked in the mines outside of Pittsburgh. My father went into the mines after he lost his business during the Depression. And with six children, he never got out. I was born into abstract poverty. We lived in a little frame house with no central heat and no air conditioning. And the pipes always froze in the winter.

Maggie Penman (5:18)

EJ wanted to go to college and.

EJ (Edna Jane) (5:20)

I knew my family couldn't afford to send me. So I went to nursing school and I got a good education.

Maggie Penman (5:29)

EJ worked as a nurse for decades. She helped start an ICU in Chicago and trained nurses in Washington D.C. and she retired 25 years ago, but she never slowed down.

EJ (Edna Jane) (5:39)

When I retired, I knew I wanted to do something other than just sit here.

Maggie Penman (5:44)

So EJ applied to volunteer at the Folger Shakespeare library here in D.C. and.

EJ (Edna Jane) (5:49)

I told them, you know, I like Shakespeare, but I'm not above. There are two or three plays I really like. I don't like the comedies. I like the histories and the tragedies. They let me in and I did it for 20 years. It was great fun.

Maggie Penman (6:05)

EJ has always stayed intellectually engaged, but as you might have guessed from her weightlifting T shirt, she's also a big believer in exercise.

EJ (Edna Jane) (6:14)

I can quote my brother who said, you think diet and exercise will cure anything? Well, I do. I go to the gym four or five times a week. I have a trainer twice a week. I like to exercise no matter what I feel like. I come out of the gym feeling better and I like being there with all the people. I go places where there are a lot of people.

Maggie Penman (6:38)

EJ says that's a big part of what keeps her healthy. Not just working out, but being at the gym around people. When I asked her for her advice for staying healthy and engaged, she said it's simple.

EJ (Edna Jane) (6:53)

Be active.

Maggie Penman (6:54)

And it turns out there's research that backs her up. After the break, I talked to a cardiologist who has been trying to identify what helps us thrive as we get older. We'll be right back.

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Maggie Penman (9:21)

I start by having you introduce yourself and say your title? How we should introduce you.

Dr. Eric Topol (9:26)

Okay. I'm Dr. Eric Topol. I'm a cardiologist and scientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

Maggie Penman (9:36)

Dr. Topol just published a book about superagers. He spent years researching why and how some people can age better than others. Into their 80s and 90s. He identified 1,400 people like EJ who were thriving well into old age to try and figure out what they had in common.

Dr. Eric Topol (9:54)

Yes, they had to be 85 plus with no prior chronic diseases, age related diseases, so it was really hard to find them. It took seven years to find 1400 people. They probably comprise well less than 1% of people in their 80s. And it wasn't of course, how long they lived. It was that they lived so elfolate.

Maggie Penman (10:18)

One of the first surprises was it didn't seem like their longevity had anything to do with their genes.

Dr. Eric Topol (10:24)

Their genes didn't reveal much. So sometimes it's the genes, but most of the time, the vast majority of time has nothing to do with their DNA.

Maggie Penman (10:32)

They did have other things in common though.

Dr. Eric Topol (10:35)

They had a very sunny disposition. They're optimistic people. They were physically active. They tended to be educated more.

Maggie Penman (10:43)

But I think that's actually probably very hopeful information to a lot of people because I think what can be discouraging sometimes is thinking like, oh no, like whatever my genes are, I'm stuck with it and there's no getting out of it for me.

Dr. Eric Topol (10:57)

I have terrible family history. It was liberating. You know, maybe I won't follow in my parents and my aunt uncle's footsteps.

Maggie Penman (11:07)

I asked Dr. Topol to explain what he meant by sunny dispositions because that seems like a surprising data point.

Dr. Eric Topol (11:14)

There's a chapter in the Book about mental health and how that tightly intertwined with physical health. The social isolation or social interaction thing is really important. We've seen such remarkable data. As people get older, they tend to live in a cave, and humans were social animals. And we get a lot out of that interaction. So that's another thing that people should be working on is, you know, not being so isolated and lonely, but rather striving for, you know, interactions with other people.

Maggie Penman (11:47)

And I told him this sounded a lot like my neighbor E.J. she's active. She has tons of friends. She volunteers. She tries new things. She's involved in her community.

Dr. Eric Topol (11:58)

They have a purpose. They're doing all kinds of stuff. A lot of them volunteering, community service stuff. They're very active people. That is a common theme. And you don't find that in the DNA either. You know, that's a behavioral trait, which is mutable. You can certainly, you know, be more like that.

Maggie Penman (12:20)

EJ doesn't think the story of her life is really all that interesting or unique.

EJ (Edna Jane) (12:25)

What's extraordinary about is nothing. It's just the way someone lives their life. People who sit around and don't do anything, I don't think they live that long.

Maggie Penman (12:36)

I asked EJ if there was another trapeze school in store for her. So are there any other things on your bucket list? Are there things you still want to do?

EJ (Edna Jane) (12:47)

Ah, just to take good care of my gardens and to be nice to people.

Maggie Penman (12:54)

What I love about these goals, taking care of her garden and being nice to people, is that they sound modest, but they totally speak back to the research about how we can all thrive as we age by staying involved, having a sense of purpose, and having a community. And I don't know if I will ever be brave enough to make it to trapeze school, but EJ has inspired me to start a garden. I'm Maggie Penman, and I'm going to be bringing you more stories like this one on the weekend along with other members of the Optimist team. So please send us an email and let us know what you think. You can reach us@podcastsoshpost.com you can find more hopeful and inspiring stories online and in our newsletter. We'll put a couple of links in our show notes, and as you heard Dr. Topol say, having a sunny disposition could make you live longer and stay healthier. So the Optimist is good for you. According to Science, Today's episode was reported and produced by me with help from Ted Muldoon, who also mixed the show. Thank you to my editor, Allison Klein. Have a great rest of your weekend.

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