Longevity and a good life require more than low cholesterol

OK, boomers, what are we going to do with the rest of our lives? An entire industry awaits to nip and tuck us. To exercise and train us. To help us pretend we’re not getting older. But we most certainly are! Statisticians say fully one-quarter of California’s population will be 60 or older by 2031.

Now a gerontologist based in Orange County delivers a somewhat revolutionary rebuttal to a youth-obsessed culture: Aging can be good. In a book, myriad public appearances and a ebullient Instagram feed (featuring her 96-year-old mother), Kerry Burnight suggests that wisdom, humor, compassion and even grace await us all. If we work for it.

The gerontologist and author of “Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half” said this week that multiple studies confirm that older people can thrive if they focus on their whole being, not just on cholesterol, hormone levels, fierce cardio training and building muscle mass.

“What the literature shows us is that those who are able to maintain psychological well-being in later life are people who have proactively decided to continue to grow,” said Burnight, 56, who worked for 18 years as a professor in the Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology division at UC Irvine.

Burnight has broken down the most important areas for successful aging into four broad categories:

• Grow. People must continue to try new things. That can mean anything from learning an instrument, to teaching, to volunteering, to taking a part-time job or joining a line-dancing group.

“Those who maintain psychological well-being in later life are people who have proactively decided to continue to grow,” Burnight said. “And with continued growth is a recognition not only that we will not be silenced but we’ll stop silencing ourselves.”

• Connect. Everyone should “diversify their social portfolio.” By making friends in many age groups, people conjure up more interesting experiences. And, no matter how long they live, at least some of their friends will survive with them. The quality of people’s social connections has more bearing on their longevity than factors like genetics, exercise and socioeconomic status, Burnight said.

• Adapt. “Hard things always come,” Burnight said. Humans who have happier years in the second half of life are those who “have the ability to take what life hands them, to feel it, lean into it, and then adapt to move forward using internal and external coping strategies.”

• Give. Anyone can volunteer at a homeless shelter. Or pick up trash in a local park. Burnight describes a woman, close to 90, who she visits regularly in a group-living facility. The woman made a conscious decision to be the best listener she could be. Now employees and her fellow residents, all starved for attention, seek out the nonagenarian. She has become a quiet sensation, just by focusing on one simple thing.

Burnight’s book made the New York Times Bestseller list last summer. She’s teaching at the University of Chicago’s Leadership & Society Initiative, which inspires “accomplished leaders [to] live meaningful lives by activating their encore chapters for the good of society.” And her Instagram posts — often video chats with her mother, Betty, at @The_Gerontologist — commonly draw thousands of likes.

Burnight pokes fun at long-life evangelists who obsess on fitness above all else, calling them “the longevity bros.” She rails against the “billion-dollar, fear-based anti-aging industry that frames old as bad and longevity as a competitive sport.”

Burnight is scheduled to be named by Time magazine this week to a list of 100 healthcare leaders. She plans to speak about what gets better with age and doesn’t cost a thing. “We stop caring so much what others think of us,” she wrote, in her prepared remarks. “We become less egocentric, more effective. We develop a deeper appreciation for connection. We gain humility. And we develop the kind of creative, adaptive problem-solving that society desperately needs right now.”

• The head of the L.A. 2028 Olympics committee. A director of big Hollywood hits. An NFL owner. A celebrity chef.
• They are among the boldface names from Los Angeles who have emerged in the latest dump from the Epstein files.
• The L.A. cases are each unique in their own way, with some files illuminating events that occurred before the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislane Maxwell came to light.

• Raman’s surprising last-minute entry into the L.A. mayor’s race is prompting inevitable comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, another politician backed by the Democratic Socialists of America who recently was elected mayor of New York City.
• But Raman’s record as a City Council member hasn’t always aligned with the far left.
• In fact, her stances on issues such as homelessness, transportation and protecting immigrants from the Trump administration are similar to those of her opponent and former ally, Mayor Karen Bass.

• Los Angeles officials just made it easier to convert empty commercial buildings to housing, opening the door to the creation of thousands of new apartments across a city clamoring for housing.
• After years of struggling to find white-collar tenants for a gleaming office high-rise on the edge of downtown, developer Garrett Lee just began converting its office space into close to 700 apartments.

• A Southern California man was sentenced to four years in prison for acting as a covert Chinese agent while helping elect an Arcadia City Council member.
• A California man serving prison time was awarded $27.3 million for being shot by a deputy in 2021.
• Why video of a masked intruder is such a game-changer in the Nancy Guthrie investigation.
• The FAA closed airspace around El Paso, Texas, for 10 days, grounding all flights for “security reasons.”
• Older Asians could be susceptible to ATM robberies during Lunar New Year, officials warn.
• Jill Zarin, who was fired from “RHONY” reunion show over her Bad Bunny rant, defends herself: “I’m human.”

Today’s great photo is from Times contributor Josh Jackson on California Highway 127. During a recent road trip, he discovered the breathtaking wonders of going the long way.

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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