Researchers at Boston University Medical Center have studied centenarians for the past 12 years. Now called the New England Centenarian Study, it is the largest genetic and social study of centenarians and their families in the world.
It’s based on the idea that centenarians are a select group of people who age slowly and who have either markedly delayed or entirely escaped diseases normally associated with aging such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke and heart disease.
Researchers collected blood samples from thousands of centenarians in the United States. In examining the DNA, they’ve found “a physiological current” preventing age-related illnesses from afflicting centenarians, said JaeMi Pennington, the communications specialist for the New England Centenarian Project. Specifically, there is a genetic mutation on chromosome No. 4 commonly found in centenarians.
Pennington spoke by phone from Boston University.
Q: How can people live to be 100?
A: Really good luck seems to be the biggest factor. A lot of evidence also strongly suggests it’s genetic, that longevity is familial. Then there are environmental issues — how well a person cares for him or herself, their habits, lifestyle. But we’ve found that their habits are really all over the board.
Living to 100 is basically like winning the lottery — a lot of different factors have to line up for a person to live that long. It’s not so much that they’re predestined to live longer, but that they manage to live longer without disease and age-related ailments.
Q: What are the demographics of today’s 50,000 centenarians?
A: Centenarians come from all ethnicities. More than 80 percent are women. But the men who do make it to 100 tend to be in better shape than the women.
As of late, we’ve found the Seventh Day Adventists are newly displaying longevity. We think it’s the complete absence of chemicals in their diet, that they’re vegetarians, and their strong spirituality.
Q: Are baby boomers and Gen Xers more likely to live to 100 than today’s centenarians?
A: Absolutely. The human life expectancy has increased a little bit every year. We can attribute that to better health care, medical care and nutrition. People are given the tools to live longer, healthier lives.
People ages 85 and up are the fastest growing part of the population, with centenarians the front-runners. The population pyramid is now more like a rectangle.
Q: How long can humans live? Is there a limit to how many years the human body can withstand?
A: The oldest living person got to be 122. Madame Jeanne Calment of France. Every day she was alive she raised the bar for the human life span. (She died August 4,1997.)
Today’s oldest living person is 116. That’s exceptional.
(The title goes to Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tenn. The oldest living man is Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico. He is 115. The average life expectancy remains 77.)
Q: Why study centenarians?
A: The centenarians seem to have the key to long life. But the point of our research … is not so much to extend life, but to improve the quality of life we do have.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California