Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives

by Ken Stern

An internationally recognized longevity and aging expert uncovers the secret to an enduring, thriving meaningful social connections

Contrary to popular belief, the secret to living longer is not just about eating well, exercising, or getting regular checkups. Instead, successful aging depends on the nature of your relationships and your social connections. If you want to live a healthy and rewarding life, you need to start with social health.   

In Healthy to 100, longevity expert Ken Stern takes us on a journey to some of the longest-lived countries in the world—Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain—places that have achieved great advances in longevity by intentionally strengthening social connections. Science shows that physical and mental health outcomes are all improved by the intergenerational connectedness, sense of purpose, and respect enjoyed by older people in these countries.  

Their example offers us all a personal and societal guide for how we can better the second half of life. Weaving in surprising, colorful stories from around the world, Stern shows that the key to healthy longevity involves a mindset shift and purposeful building of social connections. Healthy to 100 offers a hopeful, attainable, research-backed model for anyone seeking a longer and healthier life. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrative around aging and how people spend their final decades is being rewritten to celebrate vibrant life, purpose, socialization, and physical and mental activities. Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives opens with a focus on Japan because Japan has the longest and healthiest lifespan. Japanese live in good health eight years longer than those in the US and four years longer than those in the UK.

Japan is also the country with the highest percentage of people over 65 continuing to work. 25% over 65 are active members of the workforce. The Japanese state that high employment figures and strong health data are closely related.

An 85-year Harvard study of adult development concluded that the formula for a healthy life is the quality of relationships, social fitness. It's about being engaged in activities you care about with people you care about.

Spain is another country with healthy longevity. Currently Spain has 20,000 centenarians. That number is expected to rise to 373,000 within 40 years.

Singapore, Japan, Spain, and Italy have added approximately 15 years to healthy life expectancy. This book illustrates how countries have put social health at the centerpiece of their public health strategies.

Highly recommend!

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author travels to different countries trying to understand the policies and practices that sustain long lives for people and buoy up strong social ties. He highlights the importance of intergenerational living (Spain) not age segregated communities, neighborhood design that fosters social interactions instead of car-dominant living (Spain), challenges to ageist stereotypes (Japan), life long learning (Korea), working longer and more flexibly (Japan), focus on in person instead of online interactions (Italy and the Sunday night dinners!), volunteering!!! All of this data and research just makes sense

But I didn't like the book because of the judgmental and even ageist attitude of the author. In the Intro, the author tells the story of Table 23 -- the table where he sat at a wedding. This table was on the outskirts of the action and were all guests of the bride's parents in the 60s and beyond. Several people at the table talked about their post retirement life -- one woman had the time to read books during the day, another volunteered for a local non profit board and another gushed about all the new cooking he was doing. The author was SO judgmental , claiming that the people at Table 23 were living lives of quiet desperation instead of meaning and he referred to Table 23 throughout the book even in the conclusion. How dare he judge the meaning of someone else's life! I think he was upset because he was placed at a table on the outskirts with people he thought were old and boring and washed up. And he didn't want a seat at that table. I have done this as well. I judge some family members who go cruising for retirement and fix their kitchens and go to the early bird dinner. Maybe I'm mad at my own snobbiness. All I can say is that the recommendations throughout the book (working, volunteering, learning, giving back) all make sense and as I make my way figuring out what this eldering time will be, I will focus on it being a time for growth and giving back (generativity).

[Annie Reads The World · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I know that having strong social bonds is very important for mental health and longevity and it is something that I think about often. So when I saw this book I knew that I had to read it since it's right up my alley.

The book explores different communities that have long life expectancies and the connections between that and strong social bonds.

The book includes tons of super interesting examples that made me want to do lots of further reading on the topic, which is always the mark of a great nonfiction book for me.

The writing style of the book is very readable and fast paced, although the chapters are very long.

I already have several people in my life picked out that I think would love this book once it's released.

[Summer Sayre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a lot of health books about longevity, but this one explored a topic I haven't seen touched on quite as much as "what to eat" or "do this, not that" - it focused on social connection. The author traveled to many different locations in the world to look at how centenarians live, and how their lives are shaped by meaning well into their 80's, 90's, and 100's.

It has me thinking about the world we live in right now, and how a lot of aspects in the US have taken community away from us.

Overall, it was a great listen - much like a very long podcast, as it was read by the author. I highly recommend it!

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ This book covers an important topic that doesn’t get enough attention: social connection and aging. I learned a lot, especially from the personal examples and the discussion around how different countries and their policies approach healthy aging. That said, it felt longer than it needed to be and the chapter organization could’ve been tighter. The beginning and the ending were the strongest parts. Definitely worth a read, just wish it had been more condensed.

[RICKY CHANG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many relatable and well researched stories. I don't need to be convinced, I'm a believer looking for actionable next steps for the individual. This book might be more useful for policies and government people looking for ideas. As a semi retired person this doesn't have enough actionable advice.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening.

[Lisa Lloyd]

I didn’t finish. I read about 1/3 and captures the concept of how important social interactions are to our health. It was interesting to learn of how Japan and other countries support the age group