7 replies to this topic

[Mind]

Latest supercentenarian research findings.

Only 6.6 per 1,000 makes it into this category (16,600/2,500,000 = 0.0066); alternatively, from the 2000 US Census (~50,454 centenarians in a total population of 282 million = 17.9 per 100,000) or by applying the mortality rates from US Social Security for 2004 to the number of US centenarians for 2000, we estimate that the number of age 100 (but not older) persons in the year 2000 was 16,600, while US births in the year 1900 was 2,500,000. There is additional variability due to migration and due to the cohort effect of adding persons born before 1900. Another estimate puts the number of US Centenarians in 2009 at 81,000.

Why Do Supercentenarians Live So Long?

The most likely cause of death of Supercentenarians is called Senile Cardiac TTR-Amyloidosis (Diagnosis by Autopsy [6 of 10 in all of history] and not by what is written on Death Certificates).

Finding: We recognize that longevity is inherited (1st degree relatives also live a long time); By the way, Supercentenarians have practically nothing else in common, regardless of what they tell us is their self-attributed “Secret” to long life.

Conclusion: The answer to longevity must lie in our genes.

Corollary: Doing a simple DNA Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) analysis is expected to uncover a large number of “longevity” genes that determine human life expectancy and maximum lifespan.

[robomoon]

The article 'Longevity Gene' Common Among People Living To 100 Years Old And Beyond http://www.scienceda...90203081624.htm is one of what search.com finds with: longevity gene. A variation in the gene FOXO3A has a positive effect on life expectancy. Yet, that's great news about medical research at Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet, Kiel/Germany. That gene is found much more often in centenarians. And it appears to be worldwide - yet it looks that way since not only DNA samples from German centenarians were observed.

[brokenportal]

What is this team about exactly? I thought I would find a main topic in this Supercentarian Team section someplace but I dont see one. From what I remember, I thought you guys said it was about asking them questions. Can somebody come up with a list of such questions, and then we can go over it and pin a final draft in this section for people to ask?

Anyways, Im here because Ive realized recently that I have a great aunt, maybe two, that are over 100. That would be interesting to try to collect their data for this project.

They are my Great Grandmothers sisters. My Great Grandmother died about 15 years ago. Looking at my aunts walking around, healthy, for what its worth, and smiling, doing well, I gain a potent, troubling, 3D perspective that my Great Grandmother doesnt need to be dead. She could still be here too.

[The Immortalist]

Ya what is this team for anyways? As I see it it's just taking up space and no ones doing anything with it. Am I wrong?

[Anthony]

In musing on the subject of super-centenarians, I am surprised that these individuals are so diverse/scattered; I would have suspected these individuals to be more closely related (for the population to be more clustered) for three reasons: the genetic profiles necessary to push someone over 110 are extremely rare; it appears these profiles are inherited (as opposed to a genetic mutation occurring during fetus development, etc.); and it appears that super-centenarians rely on more than one gene variant to help them reach the 110+ mark. Given that information, it seems unlikely that several super-centenarian, genetic profiles would develop independent of each other.



Anthony

[Mind]

Nice to see more people thinking about why there is a limit to longevity that seems to be around 114-115 years of age. The world's deadliest distinction.

Last month, a 114-year-old former schoolteacher from Georgia named Besse Cooper became the world's oldest living person. Her predecessor, Brazil's Maria Gomes Valentim, was 114 when she died. So was the oldest living person before her, and the one before her. In fact, eight of the last nine "world's oldest" titleholders were 114 when they achieved the distinction. Here's the morbid part: All but two were still 114 when they passed it on. Those two? They died at 115.
The celebration surrounding Cooper when she assumed the title, then, might as well have been accompanied by condolences. If historical trends hold, she will likely be dead within a year.

[steampoweredgod]

Regarding Senile Cardiac TTR-Amyloidosis, can we assume that long term protein cycling, if it turns out to be beneficial in humans, would help with this?

[Mind]

Sample size of two in this recent research but both subjects were over 114! They neither had many of the known genes for longevity and had several alleles associated with shortened lifespans/diseases. Yet here they are the oldest of the old. It seems there might be an even smaller number of very significant longevity genes that these two possess or environmental factors (CRON, exercise, sleep, etc...) play a bigger role than we currently estimate

http://www.kurzweila...longevity-clues.

A team of researchers has analyzed the complete genomic sequences of male and female supercentenarians, both over 114 years old.

Surprisingly, the researchers showed that the DNA sequences are largely comparable to existing non-supercentenarian genomes, and the two individuals do not appear to carry most of the well-established human longevity-enabling variants already reported in the literature.

In fact, the supercentenarians have a comparable number of known disease-associated variants relative to most human genomes sequenced to-date. However, approximately 1% of the variants these individuals possess are novel and may point to new genes involved in exceptional longevity.

“The analyses suggest that there are both common and rare longevity-associated variants that may counter the effects of disease-predisposing variants and extend lifespan,” say the researchers. “The continued analysis of the genomes of these and other rare individuals who have survived to extremely old ages should provide insight into the processes that contribute to the maintenance of health during extreme aging.”

Supercentenarians (age 110+ years old) generally delay or escape age-related diseases and disability well beyond the age of 100 and this exceptional survival is likely to be influenced by a genetic predisposition that includes both common and rare genetic variants.