Being a centenarian is a reflection of longevity and aging. Plato and Aristotle were already discussing the concept of centenarians thousands of years ago. Recently, studies published in GeroScience by Stockholm University. Following analysis by Amoris chort, important evidence has been presented on the factors that influence becoming a centenarian. Concepts such as uric acid, glucose, creatinine, cholesterol, and iron, along with liver and kidney function, are crucial. Read on to learn more.
How centenarians have been considered
Centenarians, once considered unique, have turned into commonplace. Actually, they are the fastest-growing demographic group of the world’s population, with numbers about doubling every ten years since the 1970s.
How long humans can live? What defines a long and healthy life, have been of interest for as long as we consider. In addition, Plato and Aristotle discussed and wrote about the ageing process over 2,300 years ago.
Get to know the secrets about longevity
The occupation of understanding the privileged information under exceptional longevity isn’t easy. It implies unravelling the complex interchange of genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors, also how they interact throughout a person’s life. Currently, our recent study, published in GeroScience, has showed some usual biomarkers, including levels of cholesterol and glucose, in people who live past 90.
Nonagenarians and centenarians have long been of intense interest to investigators. As they may aid us get to know how to live longer. Even maybe how to age in better health. So far, studies of centenarians have normally been small scale and focused on a selected group.
What is dataset about
This study is the biggest one. It compared biomarker profiles that have been measured throughout life among unusually long-lived people and their shorter-lived peers to date. In the same line, they compared the biomarker profiles of people who went on to live past the age of 100, and their shorter-lived peers. Finally, they investigated the link between the profiles and the chance of becoming a centenarian.
The research took data from 44,000 Swedes who underwent health assessments at ages 64-99. They were a sample of the so-called Amoris cohort. These participants went behind through Swedish register data for up to 35 years. Of these people, 1,224, or 2.7%, lived to be 100 years old. The majority (85%) of the centenarians were female.
Information related to the blood-based biomakers
Twelve blood-based biomarkers related to inflammation, metabolism, liver and kidney function, as well as potential malnutrition and anaemia, were incorporated. All of these have been related with ageing or mortality in earlier investigations. The biomarker were similar to inflammation was uric acid: a waste product in the body caused by the digestion of certain foods.
Moreover, they looked at markers connected to metabolic status and function. Taking into account total cholesterol and glucose, and ones related to liver function, such as alanine aminotransferase (Alat), aspartate aminotransferase (Asat), albumin, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (Alp) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD).
Finally, they also looked at creatinine, which is linked to kidney function, and iron and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), which is vinculated to anaemia.
Final results: “lower levels of glucosa, creatinine and uric acid”
We found that, on the whole, those who made it to their hundredth birthday had a tendency to have lower levels of glucose, creatinine and uric acid from their sixties onwards. Even though the median values didn’t vary specialy between centenarians and non-centenarians. For almost all biomarkers, centenarians seldom displayed extremely high or low values.
As an example, very few of the centenarians got a glucose level up 6.5 mmol/L earlier in life, or a creatinine level above 125 µmol/L. For several of the biomarkers, both centenarians and non-centenarians had values outside of the standard range in clinical guidelines. This is maybe because these guidelines are set based on a younger and healthier population.
By the time they explored which biomarkers were connected to the likelihood of reaching 100, they founded that all but two of the 12 biomarkers presented a connection to the likelihood of turning 100. This was even after accounting for age, sex and disease burden.
“Lower chance of reaching 100 years “
The people in the lowest out of five groups for levels of total cholesterol and iron had a lower chance of reaching 100 years as compared to those with higher levels. In the meantime, people with higher levels of glucose, creatinine, uric acid and markers for liver function also decreased the opportinuty of becoming a centenarian. In absolute terms, the differences were rather small for some of the biomarkers, while for others the differences were somewhat more substantial.
