If you ask for preferences, most people will tell you they want to live as long as possible. Many, however, will add a proviso: only if they do not have to suffer Alzheimer’s or some other crippling disease.

As to what produces a long life, modern people tend to believe that our genes make most of the difference. If your parents reach 100, you have a reasonable chance of doing the same.

These days, however, scientists see genes as only about a 25 percent factor in longevity. A much greater reason, they say, is environment and, especially, the way one chooses to live.

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of taking part in a week-long workshop in Manhattan led by Dr. Robert Butler.  Along with 14 other journalists, I heard from some 25 experts in areas on aging and longevity including Dr. Butler himself.

Bob Butler could well be called “Doctor Longevity.” He is a celebrated geriatrician, and the founder of the International Longevity Center in New York City. The titles of his two most recent books indicate his interests: “The Longevity Revolution” and “The Longevity Prescription.”

In the latter book, Butler offers eight ways of enhancing one’s chances of living long. To my surprise, they almost all coincide with the counsel that I have habitually given when people ask me.

1) First keep your mind active. Staying interested in a wide variety of things stimulates the brain and ups your chances for cognitive health.

2) Next attend to personal relationships. Becoming a kin keeper and a good friends can promote your morale and help you think better of the world around you.

3) Make sure you get enough sleep. Surveys have revealed that most Americans get less than the seven or eight hours a night that almost everyone needs. Though often not recognized as such (by hospitals especially), sleep remains a vital ingredient of good health.

4) Learn how to limit stress. Everyone has it, of course; otherwise we would be less than human and would lack creativity. But it can be reduced by various strategies, especially in later life when pressures of the workplace may no longer constrain us.

5) Develop connections with your community. As a booster of neighborhoods and of civil engagement, I feel enthusiastic about this directive. It appears to me to be a surefire way of expanding your horizons.

6) Live the Active Life – that’s Dr. Butler’s way of putting it. I’m all for activity and believe in daily physical exercise. My only quibble with this advice is that it should not be allowed to outweigh the spiritual life, an important dimension of human living.

7) Eat well. This has become a mantra for many people in the current era. Many of us have broken with the bad habits of our earlier years. I fancy the leadership of the nutrition guru Michael Pollan and his three pithy rules: “Eat Food; Mostly Plants; Not Too Much.”

8) Practice prevention. Here, with special attention to his chosen profession, Butler focuses on relationships with our doctors. He believes check-ups to be an indispensable way of taking care of our health.  Unfortunately. some 45 thousand Americans die each year because they lack health insurance and do not have regular access to doctors.

These, then, are some rules for living long. They have my respect because they are based on both science and lived experience. Put them into practice and you have a good chance of enhancing your prospects for reaching, if not Methusalan years, at least advanced longevity.

Rules, however, have their limitations. Somehow, human life manages to thwart rational planning and upset the approaches we have outlined on our drafting boards.

In the monastic phase of my first career, I subjected myself to a set of rules that were meant to govern all of my actions. They covered such trivia as how to cast my eyes down submissively before those in authority, and never to show frowns on my forehead.

These rules have long since appeared to me terribly artificial an – – obstacles to spontaneity of character and behavior. Maybe they once helped monks to achieve holiness or, at least, to discover ways of living together peacefully. But they seem dubious methods for life in the world.

Let these latter reflections, however, not deprive this column of its value.  The rules for longevity do not lose their worth just because life does not always adapt to them. I still believe that adopting them can make a welcome difference in life and I recommend your them to your consideration.

If, however, you disapprove of serious rules, however enlightened, let me recall too your attention the wittiest writing I know on the subject. It’s Roger Rosenblatt’s 2000 classic “Rules for Aging” where he gives you 58 pithy rules that delightfully defy common sense.