USA: Avoid Disability To Live Long, Says Study

WASHINGTON (PTI), February 15, 2008: The avoidance of disability may be a key feature of people surviving to extreme old age, a study suggests. According to the research, for a substantial proportion of those surviving to extreme old age, avoiding age-related diseases (i.e. stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes) may not be the key to their longevity; rather, the avoidance of disability may be a key feature in their exceptional survival. The study reported in the February issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, examined the health histories of 739 centenarians and found about one third of the subjects had age-related diseases for 15 or more years (age of onset prior to the age of 85). "One factor enabling the survival of these sick centenarians-to-be appears to be a delay or compression of their disability," said Thomas Perls, senior author of Boston Medical Center's (BMC) New England Centenarian Study. It was also found that though far fewer in number, male centenarians tend to have significantly better cognition and physical function than their female counterparts. One possible explanation for this may be that women are more resilient compared to men when it comes to aging. Thus, for a man to live to 100 or older, he must be in truly good shape as close to the end of his life, whereas, the women can better handle living with age-related illnesses. Source: The Hindu, Chennai