Unlocking the Secrets to Living to 100

Wish to take pleasure in a protracted, wholesome, and blissful life? Simply stay like a centenarian.

That’s the recommendation of Stacy Andersen, a behavioral neuroscientist at Boston College and co-director of the New England Centenarian Examine, the most important examine of centenarians and their households on the planet. 

The examine, which has enrolled greater than 3,000 centenarians over its 30-year historical past, has been exploring the genetic elements, way of life decisions, and environmental influences that seem to play a task within the longevity of people that stay to 100 and past. The hope is that by learning centenarians, researchers can discover remedies, in addition to determine habits and environmental elements, that would assist everybody stay more healthy for longer.

“Our purpose is to not get everybody to stay to age 100. What we’re making an attempt to know is: How do you reside to no matter age—your 70s, 80s, or 90s—in excellent well being?” Andersen says. 

It seems that centenarians, on common, don’t smoke, eat a assorted weight loss program, are social, and usually don’t sweat the small stuff. They sometimes spend extra years of their life in good well being, generally known as “healthspan.” In addition they are likely to have a sense of objective and might discover pleasure within the on a regular basis, even of their twilight years, Andersen says.

As a part of TIME’s sequence interviewing leaders within the longevity area, we spoke to Andersen about her work with centenarians and what all of us can study from them about ageing nicely. 

This interview has been condensed and edited for readability.

You run the New England Centenarian Examine. What’s it? 

The examine was began in 1995 by Dr. Thomas Perls [a Boston University geriatrician]. When Dr. Perls was a fellow doing his coaching in geriatrics, he was assigned to 2 sufferers over the age of 100 who had been residing in a retirement group. He had at all times been taught that the older you get, the sicker you get, so he anticipated the sufferers to be confined to their rooms and to be his sickest sufferers—however that wasn’t the case. A lot to his shock, they had been two of his healthiest and most energetic sufferers. They had been giving piano live shows to the group. They had been on the market doing issues. He puzzled if the 2 sufferers had been simply two outstanding outliers or if there was one thing completely different about individuals who attain these excessive ages—100 and over. So, he began the New England Centenarian Examine. It has that identify as a result of it initially began within the eight cities round Boston, however through the years we have enrolled individuals everywhere in the U.S., Canada, and different nations as nicely.

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Thus far, we’ve enrolled over 3,000 centenarians, in addition to lots of their siblings and offspring. Our oldest participant died on the age of 119. Her daughter lived to 101.

What we have seen with our centenarians is that the older you get, the more healthy you’ve got been, as a result of, on common, centenarians have considerably delayed or prevented many power age-related diseases. So along with having many further years of life, additionally they have very lengthy healthspans. And I feel that is what most of us need.

What sorts of knowledge do you acquire from the examine contributors? 

The very first thing we do is get a blood pattern. We’re taking a look at many alternative elements within the blood that would inform us about how individuals age in a wholesome means. We take a look at genetics, however then we transcend the genes and take a look at different -omics knowledge [which refers to the study of biological molecules like DNA, RNA, proteins, and metabolites]. We additionally acquire a stool pattern in order that we will perceive how micro organism within the intestine may contribute to wholesome ageing, and we ship contributors preconfigured touchscreen tablets by way of which we will administer an array of cognitive perform exams. We additionally verify their blood stress and measure their grip energy. 

Then we comply with up with them yearly. We need to see what medical circumstances they develop after we meet them. Are they nonetheless capable of stroll a sure distance? Are they nonetheless capable of handle their medicines on their very own over time? We’re actually making an attempt to know their ageing trajectory.

For considered one of our research, we concentrate on what we name “cognitive superagers” [those who maintain cognitive function similar to people who are 30 years younger]. For that examine, we ask individuals to enroll in our mind donation program so we will take a look at their mind tissue after they move away and determine whether or not there may be the protein buildup that is related to Alzheimer’s illness or frontotemporal dementia. For a few of our centenarians, we’ve seen an actual disconnect. They functioned very nicely of their every day lives, however then we take a look at their mind tissue and so they have important buildup of amyloid and tau [proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease]. From these instances, we will study quite a bit about resilience. We’re nonetheless making an attempt to know how that disconnect occurs. How do they preserve such good cognitive perform after they have proof of Alzheimer’s illness of their brains?

How huge of a task does genetics play in centenarians’ longevity?

For the overwhelming majority of us, genetics accounts for under about 25% [of longevity], and the remaining is said to the well being behaviors that we comply with. Do you preserve a wholesome weight? Are you consuming a nutritious weight loss program? Are you getting reasonable exercise day-after-day? These are issues that may assist everybody stay 10 years longer. 

For centenarians, there’s a a lot larger genetic element. Genetics accounts for about 75% of what will get you to essentially excessive ages like 105 and older. We’ve discovered through the years that it actually isn’t one or two genes which can be getting individuals to those excessive ages, however extra like 200 genetic variants.

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We additionally at all times assumed that our centenarians would not have illness variants of genes and that they have to be enriched for protecting elements, however it seems that, with a few exceptions, they do have a lot of the identical illness genes. This implies much more strongly that they’re enriched with protecting elements, and that’s what we’re making an attempt to study extra about, as a result of that would assist everybody. If we will perceive these organic mechanisms, we might in concept give you therapeutics that might assist the overall inhabitants.

Like a long life tablet? 

Effectively, we’ve seen that centenarians have a more healthy immune profile. We have seen that they’ve higher DNA restore, and their cells appear to react otherwise to emphasize. We’re making an attempt to dig into these mechanisms and people could possibly be translated right into a tablet that would replicate those self same results.

Are there environmental elements and way of life habits that appear to contribute to centenarians’ longevity? 

Sure, genetics isn’t every part. Environmental elements are an enormous piece that we’re making an attempt to dive into extra now. We’re taking a look at issues like sleep and leisure actions, social networks, how lengthy individuals labored for and why they retired, how lengthy individuals drive for and why they stopped driving. We need to perceive if persevering with to do wealthy actions over your lifetime performs a task in reaching age 100. 

There are a lot of centenarian research everywhere in the world, and each takes a special lens on longevity, however I’d say that throughout research it actually looks like centenarians have excellent psychological well-being. They have an inclination to attain low in neuroticism. They do not fear an excessive amount of about dangerous issues that occur. They’re capable of cope with them and transfer on. In addition they rating excessive in extraversion. They’re prepared to attempt new issues. They are typically very outgoing, which I feel helps them make new social connections as their friends move away. They’re out doing issues and assembly new individuals, and that helps their social networks. It additionally helps hold their brains robust.

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One other huge piece is that there appears to be a sense of getting objective in life—so waking up within the morning with issues that you simply need to do. I feel that is a little bit bit stunning to listen to about individuals at age 100; you may assume they’re simply sitting round doing nothing, however that is actually not the case. They nonetheless have issues that they need to accomplish. Perhaps they are not planning 10 years out, however they’re nonetheless discovering pleasure in life.

Usually, our centenarians say that they by no means adopted any particular weight loss program and so they didn’t go to the fitness center however they stayed busy and so they had been cautious to not overeat and so they ate a variety of meals. 

How about smoking and alcohol? 

Smoking could be very uncommon amongst our centenarians. Every now and then you may see within the media a 105-year-old girl who’s smoking a pack a day, however that’s a needle in a haystack. 

By way of alcohol, it varies. They largely aren’t ingesting excessively, however a few of our centenarians do have a glass of wine a day or a shot of no matter they like day-after-day. There’s plenty of variability within the completely different well being behaviors of our centenarians. They are not all doing one factor.

Does gender play a task?

About 85% of our centenarians are ladies. However the attention-grabbing factor is, the lads who stay to 100 are typically more healthy. The ladies are higher at surviving a very long time with power ailments. The boys, though there are far fewer of them who attain age 100, typically have excellent bodily and cognitive perform. The boys are typically what we name “escapers,” the place they’re avoiding illness till after the age of 100.

I do not assume we all know but why there’s this distinction, however it’s an space that we hold taking a look at, and it is a motive that taking a look at intercourse variations even amongst centenarians is actually vital.

Has working with centenarians modified the way in which you concentrate on ageing? 

It has given me a really optimistic view of ageing. Most individuals I do know say they do not need to age or they’re fearful of ageing, and what we hear from our centenarians is that additionally they had been fearful of ageing, however then they reached age 100 and so they discovered that they really loved it.

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I feel seeing individuals at age 100 who’re having fun with life and doing the issues they need to do and who nonetheless love studying is actually eye-opening. Centenarians additionally simply have a lot knowledge, and to really converse with one can be a reward.

What’s subsequent for the centenarian examine? 

Our examine has proven that centenarians attain their excessive ages as a result of they’re, on common, very wholesome agers. And now we’re making an attempt to delve into the organic mechanisms underlying that, in addition to well being behaviors and environmental elements which may assist them age so nicely.