Super powers of the super-centenarians
Through blood tests and gene sequencing, scientists want to discover the secret of the ‘oldest of the old’ in their extraordinary longevity. Experts across America suggest while the numbers of centenarians has “boomed” in recent decades, the number of “super-centenarians” – those over the age of 110 years – remains “fairly stable”.
Through blood tests and gene sequencing, scientists want to discover the secret of the ‘oldest of the old’ in their extraordinary longevity.
Experts across America suggest while the numbers of centenarians has “boomed” in recent decades, the number of “super-centenarians” – those over the age of 110 years – remains “fairly stable”.
The Chicago Sun Times quoted Dr Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Project, as saying “[super-centenarians] are really at the very edge of the human life-span”.
“The key age is the early 80s for men and 90 for women,” Dr Perls suggests. “If you can get to that age without dementia or major heart disease or stroke, it’s the idea of getting over the hump into healthy ageing,” he adds.
However, researchers suggest 40% of those who are the “oldest of the old” have managed to survive illnesses that prove fatal to others.
According to Dr Stephen Coles, who is the co-founder of the Gerontology Research Group, extended longevity is “inherited”.
Of the 107 super-centenarians in their research, Dr Coles said the participants “virtually have nothing else in common”.
“Some are smokers and some never smoked. Some are drinkers, and some never drank. They don’t have the same diets… but they have long-lived parents and siblings. It must be in the DNA,” he claims.
There are reportedly 300 to 450 living ‘super-centenarians’ in the world. A 2010 study showed many super-centenarians reside in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and, largely America.
Researchers claim the “typical” centenarian is female and the firstborn of a large family, with a birthday in October or November. Do you know of any people who have lived over the age of 110 years? Share your thoughts on ‘super-centenarians’ by commenting in the box below.
