The doctor is in the house, as he has been for decades upon decades! Meet Dr. Howard Tucker, who just celebrated his birthday on July 10. That summer’s day saw him turn 101, further cementing his place as the oldest practicing doctor in the world.
Between his career – the very nature of it and the length of time he’s been working – and his long life, Dr. Tucker has some insights on how to live a long and happy life. One of the key ingredients that unites all his advice: keeping busy.
Dr. Howard Tucker stresses that keeping active in body and mind influences longevity
Dr. Tucker has some key pieces of advice to live a life that brings both quantity and quality without sacrificing either. Although he acknowledges the importance of “good genes and a bit of luck,” there are factors people can influence themselves. The consistency between all his big ingredients is activity.
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For one thing, the good doctor advises everyone to stay physically fit and make choices that maximize their body’s health. “Swimming, jogging, hiking, and skiing well into my late-80s has kept me strong and healthy,” he shared in an article for CNBC. He eats well thanks to his “excellent chef” of a wife and he has never smoked. Even for someone so motivated as Dr. Tucker, those old activities aren’t totally available to him, but he still gets in three miles on a treadmill, walking “at a brisk pace.”
He also keeps his mind very active. Dr. Tucker frequently reads up on the latest advances in neuroscience. He has plenty of options for where he gets his information from because Dr. Tucker recruited one of his grandchildren – he has 10 – to teach him about all the latest gadgets. “The whole world is full of computers and they live by computers,” he reasons. “If I want to stay in this world, I’m going to do it.”
Uniting these is his dedication to his job, with historic impacts.
Dr. Howard Tucker advises against retiring as long as possible
Taking up hobbies. Traveling the globe. Kicking back with a good drink and no more deadlines. Retirement presents an appealing siren song full of possibilities for the future. But Dr. Tucker, who himself boasts a prolific and unprecedented medical career, advises against retiring.
He puts it plainly, saying, “I look upon retirement as the enemy of longevity. I think that to retire, one can face potential shriveling up and ending in a nursing home. It’s fun staying alive and working … Every day I learn something new.”
He’s had a lot of time to learn something new – and now his career is something others will learn about as it becomes part of the history books; after receiving his medical degree in 1947 from The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Dr. Tucker went on to practice neurology for 75 years. This earned him the Guinness World Records title of the world’s oldest practicing physician.
