What Can the World's Oldest People Tell Us About Aging Well?

Last August, a woman named Maria Branyas Morera died at the age of 117. No, that’s not a typo; at the time of her death, she was the oldest living person in the world and had lived through several catastrophic events — including surviving a bout with COVID-19 in 2020, according to The Guardian‘s obituary for her. That long of a life begs a few questions, including whether or not there are any lessons to be learned from her extraordinary life to keep the rest of us alive and healthy for longer.

In a paper published this week in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, a group of scientists analyzed Branyas’s life and genetics to better understand her longevity. Among the scientists’ findings were that “the observed far reach longevity of our case occurred in the chromosomal context of extremely short telomeres.” In other words, as Dr. Manel Esteller of the University of Barcelona School of Medicine told The New York Times, “She had cells that seemed younger than her age.”

Genetics weren’t the only factor at play in Branyas’s life. The paper’s authors also wrote that “it is likely that a beneficial effect of yogurt ingestion via modulation of the gut ecosystem could have contributed to her well-being and advanced age.” As The Guardian‘s Ramon Antonio Vargas pointed out, Branyas ate yogurt multiple times per day, as well as remaining active and staying in close contact with people she cared about.

New Study Has Plenty to Say on Wealthy Americans’ Longevity

And how it compares to that of their European counterparts

The full paper has plenty of information that’s relevant to efforts to reduce the effects of aging. That said, the authors also pointed out that there are a few areas where they weren’t able to go too deeply, writing that “we have not studied the effect of exercise, metabolic tuning, or assessed the effects of drugs targeting some of the observed features to explore their potential anti-aging effects.” In research like this, there’s almost always a next step — and this is no exception.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…