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Who Are Centenarians?
(continued pg. 5)
We have found that having a centenarian sibling increases
one's chances of survival to very old age, indicating a strong
familial component to longevity. Supporting evidence is provided
by studies of old genealogies (2). Although our study does
not distinguish between shared environmental and genetic factors,
previous work suggests that genes may play an increasingly
more important role in achieving older and older age beyond
average life expectancy (3,4). A study of Danish twins thus
appropriately noted only modest heritability in the ability
to reach the septuagenarian years and slightly older, but
significantly found no evidence for an effect of shared family
environment (5). While the twin study examined correlations
of age at death in subjects of average longevity, our study
focused on survival to extreme old age, and is therefore likely
to detect a stronger effect if familial factors play a greater
role with increasing age. Further work is needed to elucidate
the contribution of genes to the familial component of extreme
longevity.
References to the Above Article:1.
Perls TT, Alpert L, Fretts R. Middle aged mothers live longer.
Nature 1997; 339: 133.
2. Desjardins B, Charbonneau H. L'héritabilité
de la longévité. Population 1990;3:603-616.
3. Bocquet-Appel JP, Lucienne J. La transmission familiale
de la longévité à Arthez d'Asson (1686-1899).
Population 1991;2:327-347.
4. Rebeck GW, Perls TT, West HL, Sodhi P, Lipsitz LA, Hyman
BT. Reduced apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele frequency in the
oldest old. Alzheimer's patients and cognitively normal individuals.
Neurology 1994;44(8):1513-6.
5. M McGue, JW Vaupel, N Holm, B. Harvald. Longevity is moderately
heritable in a sample of Danish twins born 1870-1880. J Gerontol:
Biol Sci 1993;48:B237-B244.
Relevant References:
1. Rebeck GW, Perls TT, West WL, Sodhi P, Lipsitz LA, Growdon
J, Hyman BT. The prevalence of apolipoprotein- E4 in very
old Alzheimer's disease and non-demented populations. Neurology,
1994;44:1513-1516.
2. Perls TT. Demographic selection's influence upon the oldest
old. J Gerontologic Psychiatry 1995;28:33-56.
3. Perls TT. The Oldest Old. The Scientific American, 1995;272:70-75.
Perls TT. The approach to the patient with cognitive impairment.
Part 1: Differential diagnosis. Clinical Geriatrics. April,
1995.
4. Perls TT. The approach to the patient with cognitive impairment.
Part 2: Management. Clinical Geriatrics. April, 1995.
5. Perls TT, Herget M. Higher respiratory infection rates
on an Alzheimer's special care unit and successful intervention.
J Amer Geriatr Soc. 1995;43:1341-1344.
6. Gomez-Isla T, West HL, Rebeck GW, Harr SD, Growdon JH,
Locascio JJ, Perls TT, Lipsitz LA, Hyman BT. Clinical and
pathological correlates of apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 in Alzheimer's
disease 1996;39:62-70.
7. Perls, TT, Wood ER. Acute Care Costs of the Oldest Old:
They Cost Less, Their Care Intensity is Less and They Go To
Non-Teaching Hospitals. Arch Intern Med 1996;156:754-760.
8. Perls T. Centenarians prove the compression of morbidity
hypothesis, but what about the rest of us who are genetically
less fortunate? Medical Hypothesis 1997;49:405-407.
9. Perls T. Apolipoprotein E and Its Association with Alzheimer's
Disease. Journal of Insurance Medicine 1996;2:114-118.
10. Perls T. Acute care costs of the oldest old. Hospital
Prac 1997;32:123-137.
11. Perls T, Alpert L, Fretts R. Middle aged mothers live
longer. Nature 1997;389:133.
12. Silver M, Newell K, Growdon J, Hyman BT, Hedley-Whyte
ET, Perls T. Unraveling the mystery of cognitive changes in
old age: Correlation of neuropsychological evaluation with
neuropathological findings in the extreme old. International
Psychogeriatrics 1998;10(1):25-41.
13. Perls TT, Fretts, R. Why women live longer than men. Scientific
American Presents, June, 1998.
14. Perls TT, Bochen K, Freeman M, Alpert L, Silver MH. The
New England Centenarian Study: validity of reported age and
prevalence of centenarians in an eight town sample. Age and
Ageing (in press).
15. Perls T, Alpert L, Wager CG, Vijg J, Kruglyak L. Siblings
of centenarians live longer. Lancet 1998;351:1560.
Book Chapters:
1. Alpert L, DesJardines B, Vaupel J, Perls T. Extreme longevity
in two families. A report of multiple centenarians within
single generations. In: Age Validation of the Extreme Old.
Eds: Jeune B, Vaupel J. Odense Monographs on Population Aging
4, 1998: Odense, Odense University Press.
2. Perls TT, Bochen K, Freeman M, Alpert L, Silver MH. The
New England Centenarian Study: validity of reported age and
prevalence of centenarians in an eight town sample. In: Age
Validation of the Extreme Old. Eds: Jeune B, Vaupel J. Odense
Monographs on Population Aging 4, 1998: Odense, Odense University
Press.
Books:
Perls T., Silver M., Lauerman J. Living to 100: Lessons
in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age, March,
1998.
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Winifred
Whynot, age 93, and her sister Catherine McCaig, age 102, are subjects
in the Centenarian Sibling Pair Study.
Newsweek
How to Live
to 100
Decrepitude
isn't inevitable. New research shows we all have the tools to live
longer lives and die faster deaths.
June 30, 1997
By Geoffrey
Cowley
At 104, Angeline
Strandal doesn't place much stock in doctors. "If they start poking
around you," she says, "they'll only make you sick." The Massachusetts
centenarian does go in for a physical once in a while, but she hasn't
been seriously ill since the time she came down with appendicitis--in
1925. "People ask me what I eat," she says. "I'm a vegetarian, more
or less. I never smoked. I don't drink either. That's one of my
good qualities. And I keep my bedroom window open 365 days a year."
Strandal has outlived 11 siblings and a husband, who died back in
1931, but she still cooks every day except Sunday for her 67-year-old
daughter and her 69-year-old son. She also catches a daily mass
on TV, roots faithfully for the Boston Red Sox and loves nothing
more than a good heavyweight fight. "Every day I ask God to give
me one more day," she muses. "And believe it or not, he does."
We baby
boomers may soon find ourselves emulating Angeline Strandal, or
someone like her, as devoutly as we once did Jim Morrison. We've
watched our parents or grandparents die in their 70s--often sick,
lonely and helpless--and we're beginning to sense that life should
be longer and richer than that. "When the boomers started turning
50, it was like the start of the Oklahoma land rush," says Dan Perry,
director of the Washington-based Alliance for Aging Research. Surveys
by Perry's organization suggest that today's 50-year-olds are suddenly
serious about living to 100, and keen to get there in reasonably
good health.
"They don't
want to spend any time at all in a nursing home," he says. "The
fear of losing independence and the ability to fend for oneself
is overwhelming."
Well, it
turns out we may have a say in the matter. A growing body of research
suggests that chronic illness is not an inevitable consequence of
aging, as we've long believed, but more often the result of lifestyle
choices that we're perfectly free to reject. "People used to say,
'Who would want to be 100?' " says Dr. Thomas Perls, an instructor
at Harvard Medical School and director of the New England Centenarian
Study. "Now they're realizing it's an opportunity." So are booksellers
and magazine publishers. "Live long, die fast," the dust jackets
urge us. "Dare to be 100." Many of us will fall short of that number
simply through bad genes or bad luck. And high-tech medicine isn't
likely to change the outlook dramatically; drugs and surgery can
do only so much to sustain a body once it starts to fail. But there
is no question we can lengthen our lives while shortening our deaths.
The tools already exist, and they're within virtually everyone's
reach. (Continued)
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