Walk This Way

107-Year-Old Italian Longevity Tip

The rumors are true. Yes, I've been distant and quiet. I’ve been reflecting. Also navigating spikes in ADHD that no one prepared me for. In fact, I’ve written several blog posts in my head, they just haven’t landed via the keyboard.

However, I am back.

There is something to clarify: only 1-year has been checked off the 5-year treatment plan. It’s a circus, ladies and gents.

So, let’s wheel in a cage match between certainty and reality, sponsored by promises.

Having worked in marketing, I caught on early to how industries capitalize on our desire for certainty. Possibilities are spruced up to sound more like certainties. And indeed, treatment has introduced me to spruced-up possibilities. I've heard countless versions of: eat this way, move this way, avoid that...

Yet, the fact is the genealogy test labeled the cancer as, “Environmental”, with no specifics of what caused it.

Science has its place; after all, it's one of the reasons I'm still here today. Although, science is a process of refinement, which includes adjustments when new information emerges. And yet, selling certainty does happen before the findings fully enter the conversation.

With this awareness, I've been alert for the left hook. 

Although, not “The Hook” food truck. I alway miss the fish and chips because I never know when they're in town? That’s okay, I'm supposed to eat vegan. Except fish is fine occasionally. And eggs. But they contain toxins? Although, produce is sprayed with pesticides. . . And we interrupt this blog post to bring you an ADHD rant sponsored by promising diets. . . 

Pardon me. Let me get into a real-time example of a left hook from inside the cage.

At surgery in September 2025, I was told I would NOT need radiation. Two weeks later, it shifted to: “We need to reconsider.”

When I met with the Radiologist, I sensed the left hook. Possibilities talked up like certainties, but I noticed that not all the facts were in place. So I sought a second opinion.

And that opinion?

It advised against it.

Then the Radiologist (who strongly suggested it) called back to share recent research from MD Anderson that revealed radiation wasn’t necessary after all (for the treatment regimen I completed).

The cage match quickly shifted from certainty to reality. I witnessed how “this is the guideline” could become “we’re revisiting the guideline” within a few days. That’s because science is evolving. It’s not a promise.

Which brings me to my Italian great-aunt, who did not optimize for longevity nor follow Blue Zone research.

She lived to be 107 years old.

Of the many suggestions thrown at me, Cass followed one:

She walked.

The longer I sit with that fact, the more I question today's obsession with control and longevity. I'm especially suspicious of sponsored promises. That's probably why this blog isn't sponsored.

I’m careful around certainty itself. 

But there is one exception.

I’m pretty certain that I’m a Tough Twinkie.