Posted on 05/31/2025 11:20:04 AM PDT by DFG
Most people slow down with age, trading suits and deadlines for slippers and daytime TV. Not Dr. Howard Tucker.
The Cleveland-born neurologist treated patients for nearly eight decades, earning the Guinness World Record title for oldest practicing doctor just before his 99th birthday.
Now 102, Tucker may have hung up his white coat, but he hasn’t hit the brakes. He spends his days lecturing future doctors at Case Western Reserve University and consulting on medical-legal cases — thanks to the law degree he picked up at the age of 67.
Oh, and he’s gone viral on TikTok while promoting What’s Next, a documentary about his life, produced by his grandson.
Tucker recently peeled back the curtain on his remarkable run — and how he’s stayed sharp, driven and active well into his second century.
“Retirement, I think, is the enemy of longevity,” Tucker recently told TODAY’s Al Roker.
“You have to have some purpose in life and get up in the morning and know what you’re about,” he added.
Tucker continued practicing medicine until age 100, only stopping when the hospital where he worked shuttered its doors in 2022.
If it wasn’t for the closure, Tucker told PEOPLE, he’d “absolutely” still be seeing patients. He’s even “putting out feelers” for another gig — though he admits, “nobody wants me at my age.”
“But I’ll keep trying,” he said.
Tucker has no intention of stepping away from his current workload. But for anyone thinking about throwing in the towel, he’s got a word of advice.
“If they retire from their work, they should at least do something as a hobby, whether it be communal work or self-hobbies,” he told TODAY. “You need a stimulus for the brain daily.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Kale and tofu are red herrings, deliberate disinformation pumped out by anti-western zealots.
Licorice and anchovies are the keys to longevity.
We had a local doctor who practiced til he was almost 90, til he died. On his days off, he’d mow his lawn with a regular lawn mower in 100° weather. He was a good doctor; a little set in his ways. All 3 of his kids are doctors.
But if we eat that stuff will we live longer or will it only seem longer?
Joke from Mark Russell (I’m a lifelong nonsmoker but I like the joke.)
“If only someone could get through to young people about smoking. If they give up smoking today it could add two years to their life later on in a nursing facility.”
And with those on your breath people will stay far enough away to never infect you. Brilliant!
......”Licorice and anchovies are the keys to longevity.”
Of course, especially chocolate covered anchovies. Yum.
Good for her!
My father smoked at least one cigar a day his entire adult life.
He passed at age 94.
(I smoke cigars as well—hope to hit his number. Lol.)
Licorice and anchovies on the breath? No problem.
That’s what good cigars are for.
LOL. Don’t stint on the cognac (or whatever). To a long and productive life.
I am happy I retired when I did 8 years ago now. I enjoyed my work but not the unnecessary struggles over nothing to do with work. They were downright silly and garnered my considerable and un-hidden disgust.
Some people who are preparing for retirement say they see me as happy and successfully retired and ask me how. I tell them to retire to do something they always wanted. Decades ago I set my goal to retire to the farm I grew up on and expand it and have. There is never a day something does not need to be done but a lot of things can wait for another day If that is what I want. I made this bed on my own. It is my fault if I am unhappy with it.
I think it is also important to never let your avocation become your vocation at least not when it comes to your livelihood.
The internet and gaining knowledge are the best anti-senility medicine so far. I do sometimes get lonely but when I do I can reach out and try to help someone and do. I am selective though. I don’t want to be so needed that I am pulled on.
Ok, that is badass. Unfortunately it can't be done the other way around -- you can't get an MD attending a night school part-time as people can and often do in law.
George Burns smoked cigars and said he had three young doctors who grew old, retired and died while cautioning him about smoking cigars. Died 1996 at age 100.
I hope you do, too.
Frank Sinatra’s toast to friends.
“May you live to be 105 and the last voice you hear will be mine.”
Also, the doctor continued,"never get on the bad side of of a steam ro-bot. With those beady red eyes, they never forget a slight."
I just finished the first draft of a novel.
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