The oldest human to ever have lived was Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122. Although most of us will be lucky to see our 90th birthday, a select few will live to see 110 years and will join an exclusive club of people refered to as ‘super-centenarians’. For years scientists have tried to understand how these individuals are able to live for so long. Researchers have long believed their secret may lie in their DNA itself. However, aging is complicated and because so very few people make it to become super-centenarians, researchers have never been able to identify a specific gene linked to long life¹.
A recent study took a different approach and looked at whole families rather than only super-centenarian individuals in order to better understand longevity². The team looked at blood from from semi-supercentenarians (104-109 years) and their offspring, and compared it to offspring of non-centenarians. Using the epigenetic clock, researchers determined that both semi-centenarians and their offspring had younger biological ages and appeared to be aging slower than the average person. Meaning, although two people may have been born on the same day, those born into a family of super- or semi- centenarians will have DNA that appears younger!
This study may have finally cracked the code to long life and suggests that epigenetics plays an important role in healthy aging and exceptional longevity.
1. Gierman HJ, Fortney K, Roach JC, et al. Whole-Genome Sequencing of the World’s Oldest People. Lewis P, ed. PLoS One. 2014;9(11):e112430. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112430.2. Horvath S, Pirazzini C, Bacalini MG, et al. Decreased epigenetic age of PBMCs from Italian semi-supercentenarians and their offspring. Aging (Albany NY). 2015;7(12):1159-1170. doi:10.18632/aging.100861.