{"id":14166,"date":"2025-09-13T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/14166\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:30:20","slug":"woman-who-lived-to-age-117-had-genes-keeping-her-cells-younger-study-shows-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/14166\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who lived to age 117 had genes keeping her cells \u2018younger\u2019, study shows | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US-born woman who was the world\u2019s oldest living person before she died in Spain last August<\/a> at age 117 once attributed<\/a> her longevity to \u201cluck and good genetics\u201d. And, evidently, Maria Branyas Morera was right.<\/p>\n

A study of Branyas\u2019s microbiome and DNA that scientists began conducting before her death reportedly determined that the genes she inherited allowed her cells to essentially feel and behave as if they were 17 years younger than they actually were. And Branyas\u2019s microbiota<\/a> \u2013 which primarily refers to the bacteria in people\u2019s guts that has a role in keeping them healthy \u2013 mirrored that of an infant, according to the research led by University of Barcelona genetics professor Manel Esteller, a leading expert on ageing.<\/p>\n

The daily newspaper Ara, which covers the Catalan region where she resided much of her life, first reported on the results of the study into what was described as Branyas\u2019s \u201cprivileged genome\u201d earlier in March. Esteller\u2019s team found that Branyas retained her lucidity until almost the very end of her life.<\/p>\n

And the ailments that she grappled with during her extended golden years were largely limited to joint pain and hearing loss.<\/p>\n

Ara reported that Esteller\u2019s work on Branyas amounts to the most complete research yet into a so-called supercentenarian \u2013 someone who is 110 or older \u2013 as well as some possible explanations for the longevity that marks some lives in particular.<\/p>\n

The researchers noted how Branyas made a number of healthy lifestyle choices that also helped her take advantage of her unique genetic makeup. She adhered to a Mediterranean diet<\/a> that included three yogurts daily.<\/p>\n

She avoided drinking alcohol and smoking, enjoyed walks, and constantly surrounded herself with family and loved ones, all of which apparently aided her in staving off declines both physical and mental that could have shortened her life, the researchers concluded.<\/p>\n

Esteller and his colleagues said that they hope the study into Branyas provides useful information to those seeking to develop medications and treatments for age-related illnesses.<\/p>\n

They said Branyas exemplified how ageing and sickness \u2013 at least in certain conditions \u2013 do not necessarily have to go hand-in-hand. And the results of the genetic study done on her \u201cchallenge the perception that [the two] are inexorably linked\u201d, they also said, according to Spain\u2019s EFE news service.<\/p>\n

Branyas was born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907, after her parents moved from Spain and Mexico to the US. She also spent time in Texas and New Orleans before her family returned to Spain in 1915 \u2013 amid the first world war \u2013 and settled in Catalonia.<\/p>\n

Some of the major global events that she subsequently lived through were the Spanish civil war, the second world war, the 1918 flu pandemic and Covid-19.<\/p>\n

She made international news headlines by contracting Covid in 2020, when Spain was one of the countries hit hardest by the virus and protective vaccines were not yet available. But her Covid bout was asymptomatic, and she recovered relatively easily.<\/p>\n

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Branyas gained recognition from Guinness World Records<\/a> as the globe\u2019s oldest person in January 2023 after the death of the French nun Lucile Randon, 118. Asked by the Guinness organization\u2019s website to contemplate her longevity, Branyas chalked it up \u201corder, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think longevity is also being lucky,\u201d added Branyas, who expressed herself later in life with a voice-to-text device. \u201cLuck and good genetics\u201d.<\/p>\n

A widowed mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she died<\/a> on 19 August at a nursing home in the town of Olot in north-eastern Spain where she lived for her final two decades.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the world\u2019s oldest person was Brazil\u2019s Inah Canabarro Lucas, 116, according to the LongeviQuest<\/a> website, an authority on supercentenarians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US-born woman who was the world\u2019s oldest living person before she died in Spain last August at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[377,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-14166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}