How to age well: tips from 98-year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor – keep moving, eat vegetables, be compassionate
- It’s never too late to start exercising, says Andrei Iwanowitsch, who was in his 80s before becoming physically active – he feels better now than 15 years ago
- Diet, staying mentally engaged and experimenting with new health developments are central to his good condition, but even more important is compassion, he says
Andrei Iwanowitsch is a 98-year-old with a spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye. On holiday from his home in Belarus, he’s spent the last month visiting friends in Hong Kong and exploring the city, but he’s keeping up his almost daily exercise regime – which includes doing planks.
This nonagenarian has much to teach us about ageing well. Exercise, diet and staying mentally engaged are, unsurprisingly, central to his good health.
But even more important, he says, is compassion.
“Mercy, mutual understanding and friendship – everything that is good on an emotional basis, this is holy,” Iwanowitsch says.
Born 1926 in northern Ukraine in the early days of the Soviet Union, he lost his mother when he was six. His father was killed in 1941 in the first year of war after the German invasion.
While searching for food for his siblings, he was captured by German soldiers and sent to Leipzig, Germany, as a forced labourer.
