Would you like to live to be 100? Hmm? Maybe, with a couple of caveats: Loved ones who stick around for the ride and good health for all.

We can have those, asserts John Robbins, author of “Healthy at 100: How You Can – At Any Age – Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span” (Ballantine Books; $15 paperback). Here’s what else he tells:

1. Loneliness kills. Yep, faster than cigarettes, he maintains. Strive for healthy relationships.

2. Attitude counts. In a 20-year study, people were interviewed six times about their views on aging. Their perceptions had more impact on how long they lived than did their blood pressure, cholesterol level, or whether they smoked or exercised. Those with positive attitudes lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative mind-sets.

3. Go forth and conquer. A century ago in the United States, 1 in 500 people lived to be 100. Now, the U.S. Census Bureau expects 1 in 26 baby boomers to reach that age.

4. Mom? Junior? Who are you? Today’s average American will spend more time caring for a parent than for a child.

5. Start aging now. Who you’ll be in later years depends on the ways you care for yourself now.