The supercentenarians and how to get the most out of life.

It is amazing how an ever-increasing life expectancy has crept up on society to the extent that people consider that these days, it’s not enough just to make 100. We have always been fascinated by extreme old age from bible stories to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, but there is now a real very select club in the making – the supercentenarians. The term applies to anyone older than 110 and there are 78 supercentenarians, 71 females and 7 males, in the world today, according to the US Gerontology Research Group. Recently, the world’s oldest living person and one of the UK’s oldest people died, but what kept them and others alive so long remains a mystery. The promise of immortality is difficult to resist but if one reviews the various socalled reasons for longevity, things may not look so attractive. A Dutch lady who died at the age of 115, attributed her longevity to a diet of pickled herrings; the oldest person ever, Jeanne Louise Calment who died aged 122, suggested a glass of port per day, whereas another lady from Belarus relied on a diet of gherkins, pork fat and vodka. A Japanese gentleman who lived to 116, recommended green tea and herb wine whereas Lucy d’Abreu, aged 113 always finished the day with a brandy and ginger ale. At one time, individuals held the title of the world’s oldest person for some years, but as there are so many of these oldest old, it is now only a matter of months and an adviser to the Guinness World Records has suggested that it may not be included in future editions of their publication. What is also fascinating with this group of people are the events that they have experienced during their lifetime. These people have experienced two world wars, space travel, computers and the advances in medicine from drug development to gene manipulation, to mention but a few. As a footnote, it has been recently reported that the oldest donor in the UK was a 103-year old woman who donated her corneas to two people, successfully restoring their vision. We are all intrigued by the prospect of extending our life span but we would wish it to be healthy. Dr Stone of the University of Sheffield states that there are essentially three ways to ensure a longer lifespan: genetic intervention, but researchers have not quite achieved that understanding yet; selective breeding, but that is a very long-term option; calorific restriction, so that one reduces calorie intake by a half but maintains the essential components. The last will almost certainly have the desired effect but one of the key observations from research regarding quality of life issues in older adults, has found that being able to eat and enjoy one’s food is an essential part of daily living. As Dr Stone reiterates ‘a sure fire way to increase lifespan but a miserable way to live’. However, no one knows why a small number of individuals live to such extreme ages and there is a debate as to whether there is anything really ‘special’ about this group of people. What is a fact is that more and more people are reaching 100 years of age – in the UK, there are about 6,000. Professor Kirkwood, University of Newcastle has pointed out that long life has been around for some time but that the records are usually unreliable. It is known, for instance, that people living into their 80s and 90s was not unusual in the Greek civilisation. Unfortunately, most people did not achieve this with the average life span being just 22 in Roman times. By the 1800s it had reached about 40, by 1900s the upper 40s, whereas today it is in the middle to late 70s. It is believed that around 120 is the upper limit beyond which the human body cannot survive without significant genetic intervention. The advice at present is to eat healthily, exercise sensibly, don’t smoke, take alcohol in only reasonable amounts, and remain socially active. Genetic makeup and background also helps but that is only about 15% of the story. A gene variation that helps people live to a ripe old age also appears to preserve memory and thinking power. These are the conclusions of a study carried out on nearly 300 Ashkenazi Jews aged 70 and over by Dr Barzilla of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. It appears that this gene alters the size of fatty cholesterol structures in the blood, making them larger than normal and therefore stops them building up in blood vessels. Those that possessed the ‘longevity gene’ were twice as likely to have good brain function as those who did not have the gene variant and performance in memory and concentration tests were far superior. Also, those who reached the age of 100 years were three times more likely to have the ‘longevity gene’ variation than their 70 year old counterparts. It is suggested that it also has a favourable effect on the vascular integrity of the ageing brain and the brain tissue itself and might also protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In addition, diet may also affect the onset of Alzheimer’s disease as