Secrets of life from my oldest living friend.

And then I told myself, I can't be 40 years old forever. You know, I can't. Oh, not and still do a lot. No. There's no way. My body can't be like that. I can't be 40. I can't do the things that I did when I was young. And I guess I never believed what I didn’t know then.

Ben: “What did you never believe?”

That my body would slip because I knew I did the same things every year, and I thought, okay, if I keep doing them, then I'll be able to do it, you know. But that isn't how it works when we get older.

Ben: “Okay. How do you think it works when you get older? What’s your take on it?”

No matter, even though I can do many, many things better than a lot of 91-year-olds can, I'm talking about I can't do the things I did when I was young. So, okay. When I found out that it was hard for me to kneel in the garden and get back up again, um, that was like within the last two years maybe. So then I got out the kneeler that my son had made for me years ago, but I never used it because I didn't need it. He made it out of wood, and you could buy kneelers where you put a knee pad in it, and then it's built up like a foot. It has two sides, and the front of it is cut all the way down, so there's a big opening. The concept is you can kneel softly, and then when you go to get up, you can lean on these things. I use that. And that's what I have been doing now. Since the thing is made of wood, not plastic, I can hardly lift it. It's so heavy.

Ben: “Okay. And when you say it's heavy, how much do you think it weighs?”

I have no idea. I don't. I have no idea. I do it anyway. I lift it, and I carry it somewhere, and I do it anyway.

Ben: “Do you do it out of necessity? Like you want to get it done, and this is the only way that you can do it?”

But now, when I found out, if I stoop over and kneel that way, that's almost better. I never used to do that, but the only thing about that is it stretches the muscles in the back of my thighs, and the next day, my legs hurt. But I do it. I do it anyway, and now they're used to it. I don't get that soreness. So even at 90, there's still like a muscle memory; if you do repetitive movement, what hurts will eventually not hurt. It'll be fine.

Ben: “What are your injuries like? Do you get injuries a lot? Because I remember you had—was it last year that you had the pain? It was your knee, wasn't it?”

Oh, yeah, my knee. You know, that has never come back, but every once in a while, I'll have a pinching, but it never came back like it was. And I mean, the doctor was saying to use cortisone. Well, I don't like that. That's not gonna treat the problem, though. Basically, I just put ice on it. That's the same way as my shoulder for tendonitis, my right shoulder. And it got so bad last year, oh, I think it was April that I had the cortisone shot. Well, in two months, it came back again. And so the doctor who took care of it said that I can have a shot every four months, but not before that. And I think it's maybe cortisone that stays in your body or something, or maybe it damages something? I have no idea. But I don't like the whole idea of it; never did. And so I got this supplement called Penetrex. My daughter gets it from the Internet, but now it's in some pharmacies. Like, let's see, Jewel has it, and CVS doesn't. Walmart has it. And even though it's like $22 a jar, I buy it and I use it, and then it helps. I don't know if it's in my mind. I don't know, but I don't care.

Ben: “Like snake oil?”

It's snake oil.

Ben: “Think so? It just works because you spent money on it?”

Who knows? I don't. But it does help. I do take glucosamine. I've taken it for years, and triple strength.

Ben: “Crazy! I've been taking glucosamine daily for four years. Do you take hyaluronic acid?”

I take one in the morning, and I take one in the afternoon. I take two with breakfast, and for some reason once in a while, I think about it and I think, those things are really important . I've been taking it for years.

Ben: “Like what do you mean by years, like 30?”

I'm gonna say at least 20.

Ben: “What got you turned onto them? And what was the reasoning why you started taking them? Why was it?”

Because I knew old age was coming upon me, even though nothing was wrong with me. I started taking it. A doctor once said, oh, there's nothing to that. I said yes, there is. Well, they're not trained in it. They're not making money. If you're not making money off it, they're not gonna want to help you. It's like vitamin C. It's just like, hey, I take vitamin C every single day.

Ben: “For how many years?”

500mg, 25 to 30 years. And then, I knock on wood. I don't get colds. I just don't. Now, if it's a virus like something that is going around, I don't know if my vitamin C would help me not get it, but I don't have real severe symptoms because doctors are always saying, oh, older people really get sick; they can die from a cold. No, not people that take vitamin C. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna quit it. Another thing I take is coenzyme Q10. It helps the strength of your heart. It helps make a steady beat, and your body has that in it. I guess I'm just boosting it. And I had the doctor tell me, a cardiologist, but he's retired now. I went to him a very long time, and he said, you really have a strong heartbeat for your age. So, where did it come from? You know, was it that? I'm not gonna quit taking it. No, I’m 90-something.

Ben: “I mean, like why would you? There's no reason to change.”

I'm just not. So I just take what I take, and if somebody proved to me that one of those supplements that I take is harming me, if they prove it to me, I'll consider not taking it. But they better have good proof that it's harming me.

Ben: “If you were to quit taking something in your nineties, like, what would be the reason? Like, okay, so if you stop taking this, you’ll be 115? I understand making those changes when you're younger. But if you're doing something that would be considered to be beneficial from a natural homeopathic way to help protect joints and to help with my immunity, then what’s the problem? The doctor says, hey, don't do it. And you're like, well, how old are you? Let's say they're 40. If they had a brain, they’d be getting advice from you.”

If I was healthy, I'd like to live and see what happens 500 years from now. That would be fun, wouldn't it? Yeah. So anyway, but I know I'm not, of course. I don't know. Not too long ago there was a guy, and he was stocking the ice cream coolers, you know, putting the stuff in. And I asked him a question because, okay, here is one of my sins: it’s dark chocolate vanilla ice cream bars. I can't help it. I love them. That's good, though. It's fine. I don't care if there's a lot of sugar in them. I mean, it doesn't have any high fructose, so that's all I care about. So he said, you know, that has way too much sugar. I looked at him and said, I'm 91, and I don't care. Did he? He then said, “Well, you're in pretty good shape,” and I said, yeah. It's from eating these ice cream bars. Then there are certain things I watch now; I watch my food, and it's just like you said. Um, like if somebody told me to quit something. Why? I'm ninety, you know? But I still watch my food so I don't get too much salt or too much sugar. Like when I make cookies, I use all the best ingredients, and I cut my sugar in half, and you know you can't tell the difference. I just made some peanut butter cookies.

Ben: “Oh, I bet they're good.”

And I cooked it, called for let's see, it called for a half a cup of white and a half a cup of brown sugar. And I put in, let's see, a third of a cup of each, so that was two, so I cut out 1/3 of a cup. Now that's like a third of the recipe, you know, a third of the sugar. Yeah, 33% and you think that you could tell the difference, but you can't. So I'm thinking about cutting it even more. And if it doesn't taste sweet then next time I'll add a little bit more sugar.

Ben: “Do you think that sugar is the enemy with sickness and a lot of it?”

A lot of it, yeah. I think so. I think so too. I just never really put too much emphasis on reading into exactly how that works, but yeah, I don't know either. I know they say not to, to watch your salt, watch your sugar. Your body does need salt. I don't think it needs any sugar. Yeah. Because your body then starts to get addicted to the sugar and certain cravings, and if something has too much sugar, you can't taste what you're supposed to be tasting. Like peanut butter cookies. You can't taste the peanut if it’s overwhelmed with sugar. I can't stand that. It's too much. And so I just cut back. The cookies look identical; it's the same way, the same crunch and everything. So to me, it really doesn't matter.

Ben: “When do you think we started to become health conscious as a society? What year were you born?”

1930? You know what? My mother, she was ahead of it. She was. She never believed in synthetic food. Like I say, okay, you wouldn't catch her with a quarter stick of margarine. It was butter. And because of her, that's who I am. I have never had margarine in my house.

Ben: “My parents were like Country Crock for life. It was all imitation stuff.”

Yeah, my mother, no, she just wouldn't do it. And I think where she came from, she came from Bavaria. All their own cooking, you know, there were no restaurants. I don't know what to say about it. It was just all natural foods. Yeah, nothing was processed. Everybody cooked their own food; you know, did their own baking. Now, you know, Germany, especially Bavaria, is known for their sausages.

This was transcribed from a conversation I had with my oldest living client. She was 91 at the time of this. For privacy and respect to her and her family, her name will be anonymous.