{"id":59138,"date":"2025-08-11T12:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/59138\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T12:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:27:10","slug":"people-who-live-to-100-all-share-a-superhuman-ability-scientists-discover-could-you-be-one-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/59138\/","title":{"rendered":"People who live to 100 all share a ‘superhuman’ ability, scientists discover… could YOU be one of them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

People who live to 100 appear to have a ‘superhuman’ ability to avoid major illnesses, according to new research.<\/p>\n

Two large studies of older adults in Sweden<\/a> have found that centenarians tend to develop fewer diseases, accumulate them more slowly, and in many cases avoid the most deadly age-related conditions altogether\u2014despite living far longer than their peers.<\/p>\n

The work, published by an international research team, suggests that exceptional longevity is linked to a distinct pattern of ageing in which illness is delayed or even avoided entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings challenge the widely held belief that a longer life inevitably comes with more years of poor health.<\/p>\n

Researchers analysed decades of health records to compare people who reached 100 with those who died earlier but were born in the same years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They looked at the timing and number of diagnoses for a wide range of conditions\u2014 from strokes and heart attacks to cancers and neurological illness\u2014to see whether centenarians were simply better at surviving disease, or whether they avoided it altogether.<\/p>\n

The first study examined health records for 170,787 people born in Stockholm County between 1912 and 1922.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participants were tracked for up to 40 years\u2014either from the age of 60 until death, or until they turned 100.<\/p>\n

\"At <\/p>\n

At the age of 115, Ethel Caterham, from Surrey, is the oldest living person in the UK following the death of 112-year-old Mollie Walker on 22 January 2022<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

The analysis showed that centenarians not only had lower rates of disease in late-midlife, they maintained this advantage throughout their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, at the age of 85, only four per cent of those who went on to live to 100 had experienced a stroke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among those who died between the ages of 90 and 99, the figure was around 10 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, by the age of 100, just 12.5 per cent of centenarians had experienced a heart attack, compared to more than 24 per cent of those who died in their 80s.<\/p>\n

Researchers say this suggests they are not merely surviving serious illness better than others\u2014they are avoiding it for much longer, and sometimes altogether.<\/p>\n

However, this study, published in August last year, focused on more serious diagnoses of major diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To investigate whether the key to longevity might also lie in avoiding less serious conditions, the team conducted a second study, which was published this month.<\/p>\n

This analysis included 40 different medical problems, ranging from mild to severe, such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes and heart attacks.<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Researchers examined records for 274,108 people born between 1920 and 1922 and followed them for around 30 years\u2014either from age 70 until death, or until they turned 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only 4,330 participants \u2013 1.5 per cent\u2014reached the age of 100.<\/p>\n

Even when including a wider range of conditions, the findings were consistent: centenarians developed fewer diseases overall, and their rate of disease accumulation was slower across their lifetime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease was the most common diagnosis across all age groups, but it was significantly less prevalent among centenarians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At age 80, only 8 per cent had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, compared to more than 15 per cent of those who died at 85.<\/p>\n

The lower rates of cardiovascular illness appeared central to their extended survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Centenarians also demonstrated greater resilience to neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and dementia throughout life.<\/p>\n

While most centenarians did eventually develop multiple health conditions, this usually occurred much later in life\u2014around the age of 89\u2014and without the sharp health decline seen in non-centenarians during their final years.<\/p>\n

\"Queen <\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother lived to the age of 101\u2014she died in 2002 and was the longest living member of the Royal Family<\/p>\n

\"Public <\/p>\n

Public figures who have lived to 100 include Hollywood star Kirk Douglas\u2014father of actor Michael Douglas\u2014who died in 2020, aged 103<\/p>\n

By contrast, non-centenarians typically experienced a steep increase in the number of health problems in the last years of their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This pattern was not observed in those who reached 100, whose health decline was slower and more gradual, even into their 90s.<\/p>\n

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Karin Modig, a top epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institutet stated: ‘My research team has found that people that live to 100 seem to possess the superhuman ability to avoid disease.<\/p>\n

‘Centenarians are of great interest to scientists because they may hold the key to understanding how we can live longer\u2014and live longer in better health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The finding that centenarians manage to delay, and in some cases, avoid disease despite living longer is both intriguing and encouraging.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It show it’s possible to age more slowly than is typical\u2014and challenges the common belief that a longer life inevitably comes with more disease.’<\/p>\n

The reasons for this resilience remain unclear. It could be due to genetic advantages, healthy lifestyle habits, environmental factors\u2014or a combination of all three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team now plans to investigate which factors are most important, and how they influence health throughout life.<\/p>\n

\"Mary <\/p>\n

\u00a0Mary Poppins actor Dick Van Dyke will turn 100 on December 13, 2025. He is currently 99 years old.<\/p>\n

The oldest living person in the world is now believed to be Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born on June 8, 1908 and is 116 years old.<\/p>\n

At the age of 115, Ethel Caterham, from Surrey, is the oldest living person in the UK following the death of 112-year-old Mollie Walker on 22 January 2022.<\/p>\n

Ms Caterham, who died in 1997, attributed her longevity to ‘never arguing with anyone, I listen and I do what I like’.<\/p>\n

Public figures who have lived to 100 include Hollywood star Kirk Douglas\u2014father of actor Michael Douglas\u2014who died in 2020, aged 103.<\/p>\n

Fellow silver screen legend Gloria Stewart\u2014best remembered, now, for playing the older Rose in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic\u2014passed away in 2010 at the age of 100.<\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother lived to the age of 101\u2014she died in 2002 and was the longest living member of the Royal Family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mary Poppins actor Dick Van Dyke\u00a0will turn 100 on December 13, 2025. He is currently 99 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who live to 100 appear to have a ‘superhuman’ ability to avoid major illnesses, according to new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-59138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}