Want to live to be 100? Here's the hobby you need to pursue!

Gardening can positively impact your overall health -- both physical and mental -- and extend your lifespan to a hundred years! Centenarians across the world swear by it.

Image used for representational purpose only.

A healthy lifestyle with physical exercise and lots of greens could improve longevity. But we already know that, don't we? Here is something else most of us are not aware of: Gardening could help you live to turn 100!

Award-winning journalist and author Dan Buettner discovered five places in the world -- Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Icaria in Greece, Loma Linda in California and Sardinia in Italy -- dubbed Blue Zones, where people lead the longest and healthiest lives. 

He studied the lifestyle in these blue-zones and found out they have some common factors -- social support networks, daily exercise habits and a plant-based diet. Apart from this, he noted another significant commonality, that people in these regions are gardening well into their 80s and 90s.

Psychological benefits

Gardening is not only good physical exercise, but it also lifts your mood.

According to a BBC Report, “If you garden, you’re getting some low-intensity physical activity most days, and you tend to work routinely,” says Buettner. He says there is evidence that gardeners live longer and are less stressed. 

A Dutch study showed that gardening results in lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, elevating your mood more than indoor activities like reading. Australian researchers have found that men and women in their 60s who regularly gardened had a 36% lower risk of dementia.

Being outside in warm sunlight and fresh air help elders feel better, while the texture and colours of plants and vegetables help improve visual and tactile abilities. 

Most elders in Okinawa, Japan, which has the highest ratio of centenarians, have a small patch of land where they maintain a garden. 

Forging a connection

Researchers say that gardening provides a sense of purpose as well as self-satisfaction, which is important for mental well-being.

It also helps in feeling socially connected as people gather at local markets where they share their produce with others. 

So, although gardening may not guarantee that you live to turn 100 years old, it provides the much-needed balance in life by ensuring that people stay physically fit, connected to nature as well as the society. 

Don't think you can complete your bucket list in merely 70 years? Now you know which hobby to take up!