Link: http://www.zwire.com...id=222087&rfi=6
Date: 11-08-03
Author: Bard Lindeman
Source: Tribune Media Services
Title: Researchers probe secrets of our centenarians
Researchers probe secrets of our centenarians
Bard Lindeman, Tribune Media Services November 04, 2003
Q. The drug companies are helping to create an American society of what I call "the living dead." These poor souls, many nothing more than "wheelchair zombies," hang on long beyond their time, thanks to the drugs they take. Why would anyone wish to live to be 100 or 105? It's not nature's plan for us to live this long.
A. Move over, Mother Nature, medical science wants a seat at your table. Consider that during the 1990s, the number of centenarians doubled, according to U.S. Census figures. Today there are an estimated 70,000 of these long livers, and demographic analysts predict by mid-century there will be more than 800,000.
Here's the best news: "We live in a society that thinks the older you get, the sicker you get. But virtually all people who live to be 100 are living completely healthy lives at age 90."
This is the finding of Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the well-regarded New England Centenarian study. Meanwhile, gerontologist Nir Barzilai, of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, New York, explains the reason for centenarian research is "not to help everyone live to age 100; our goal is to understand why centenarians remain healthy in their 70s and 80s, when their friends are getting sick and dying."
The results here should be obvious: to help more people avoid the so-called age related diseases, thereby lowering medical costs while also increasing the number of years people can remain productive in the work force.
Now, there perhaps is no greater, more enthusiastic supporter of centenarians than Neenah Ellis, who produced the series "One Hundred Years of Stories" for National Public Radio. She traveled the country, collecting centenarians the way some people collect antiques, quilts or seashells.
A seasoned professional, Ellis nonetheless fell head over teakettle for these people, who consistently amazed and amused her: "Most (of the centenarians) were models of perseverance and positive thinking," she writes. "They were curious and generous and fun...I had stumbled upon a group that I had not known existed: 100-year-old people who, unlike most their age, suffer no dementia...and remain engaged with the world."
A byproduct of the Neenah Ellis project is a yeasty little book, "If I Live To Be 100, Lessons from the Centenarians" (Crown Publishers; 2002). Here, Ellis lets it all hang out:
"The centenarians are as mysterious as infants in their way - so full of promise and surprise - even if they are sometimes confused...I feel comfortable with them physically. I like it when they want to hold my hand and sit close because they can't hear or see. I like...the way their eyes light up. I love to see a 100-year-old woman wear lipstick...There is a glow, a magnetism, a vibe I feel when I'm around them."
OK, now back to the science: What indeed have researchers learned from these survivalists? For now, genetics draws most of the attention. Dr. Daniel Perls says, "There are longevity-enabling genes that help them (centenarians) age more slowly. There also is the possibility these genes limit the free radicals (unpaired electrons that wear down human tissue)."
Science reporter Stephen S. Hall, writing in his "Merchants of Immortality/Chasing The Dream of Human Life Extension" (Houghton Mifflin; 2003), first raises the possibility of genetic manipulation as a way to approach "aging as a disease that can be cured, or at least postponed," and then he deflates it.
Hall quotes pragmatist S. Jay Olshansky, of the University of Chicago, telling a group of actuaries: "There are no death or aging genes - period."
Later, lest there be any doubt, Hall adds: "No serious scientist believes victory over mortality is possible."
Finally, an admission: Much that is written, in newspapers and elsewhere, about centenarians is embarrassing. It's pap, low fat gruel, served up for romantics. Toward the end of his remarkably long life, Strom Thurmond was an exhibition, a sharp reminder to some of why they continue to wish for an early exit. Why they pray never to be seen as a soldier in the army of the living dead.
How long do you want to live: to age 100? To 120 years? Why do you wish for these added years? The best answer will be awarded a $25 prize. Write Bard Lindeman, c/o Years, 5428 Oxbow Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30087-1228. Fax to (404) 815-5787 c/o Bard or e-mail BELindeman@earthlink.net.
Anyone up for the 25.00 reward? - KP
©Casa Grande Valley Newspaper 2003
