Carlos Solis
Today people are living longer, but very few make it to 100. The reasons why some of us become centenarians remain a mystery. A new study by a team of Swedish epidemiologists led by an aging expert has uncovered a factor that may help explain those long lives.
It turns out that people who reach 100 years old have an extraordinary ability to avoid disease.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
Researchers have long wondered whether centenarians’ resilience comes from a greater ability to withstand serious illnesses or from simply avoiding certain diseases altogether.
In a recent study, the team analyzed the health of people with longer and shorter lifespans who were born in the same years. Initially, the researchers included 170,787 participants born in Stockholm between 1912 and 1922.
The results showed that centenarians experienced fewer diseases throughout their lives. Compared with their peers who lived shorter lives, the centenarian participants had a significantly lower risk of developing fatal illnesses.
The scientists assessed the risk of stroke, heart attack, hip fracture, and various other serious conditions among all participants—both those who reached 100 and those who had shorter lifespans.
By the age of 85, only 4 percent of those who lived to 100 had suffered a stroke. Among people who reached 90–99 years, about 10 percent had experienced a stroke by age 85.
Moreover, even though centenarians lived longer, the risk for most diseases never rose to the levels seen in their shorter-lived peers.
Regarding hip fractures, 12.5 percent of centenarians experienced one, compared with more than 24 percent of people who lived to 80–89 years. This suggests centenarians not only delay the onset of major age-related diseases but often avoid them altogether rather than simply coping with them better.
Findings Extend Beyond Serious Illnesses
At first, the researchers focused on more serious diseases. To get a fuller picture, the team later examined 40 different ailments, with severities ranging from mild to severe, as reported by Science Alert.
This phase included 274,108 residents of Sweden born between 1920 and 1922. Only 4,330 participants from that group reached the age of 100, about 1.5 percent.
Even when studying a broader spectrum of diseases, the researchers found the same pattern: centenarians developed fewer conditions, and the rate at which they accumulated diseases over their lifetimes was lower.
The team also found that centenarians were more likely to have diseases that were limited to a single organ system. Those kinds of conditions are generally easier to treat and manage in the long term.
By the age of 80, cardiovascular diseases had been diagnosed in only 8 percent of people who later reached 100. In comparison, over 15 percent of individuals who died at 85 had cardiovascular conditions by the age of 80.
Centenarian participants also showed greater resilience against neuropsychological issues, such as depression and other neuropsychological conditions.
Individuals who did not reach 100 typically experienced a sharp rise in the number of diseases in their final years. Centenarians, in contrast, did not show such a drastic health decline even after turning 90.
Why Is This Research Important?
This study challenges the common belief that a long life is inevitably accompanied by a multitude of diseases.
The findings suggest that exceptional longevity is linked not only to delaying illness but also to a different aging trajectory. It remains unclear whether that trajectory stems from genetics, lifestyle, environmental factors, or a combination of those elements. The next step for researchers will be to explore which factors enable people to reach 100 and how those factors influence health across the lifespan.
Photo: vitbichi.by, pexels.com
