Okinawa Centenarian Study: Investigating Healthy Aging among the World’s Longest-Lived People

Willcox, D. Craig; Willcox, Bradley J.

doi:10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_74-1

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…To study the issue of biological aging, the most critical point is choosing an appropriate and convincing sample (Becker & Apel, 1993). Previous studies on human aging chose centenarians as experimental subjects and focused on populations with high numbers of long-lived people (Willcox, Willcox & Poon, 2010; Suzuki, Willcox & Willcox, 2016). The results of these studies are greatly influenced by various environmental and genetic factors for each individual.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree age did not affect the leaf anatomical structure or ultrastructure of Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae)

Zhou

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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Tree aging is a new research area and has attracted research interest in recent years. Trees show extraordinary longevity; Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae) has a lifespan of thousands of years. Ancient trees are precious historical heritage and scientific research materials. However, tree aging and tree senescence have different definitions and are poorly understood. Since leaves are the most sensitive organ of a tree, we studied the structural response of leaves to tree age. Experiments investigating the leaf morphological structure, anatomical structure and ultrastructure were conducted in healthy P. orientalis at three different ages (ancient trees >2,000 years, 200 years < middle-aged trees <500 years, young trees <50 years) at the world’s largest planted pure forest in the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, Shaanxi Province, China. Interestingly, tree age did not significantly impact leaf cellular structure. Ancient P. orientalis trees in forests older than 2,000 years still have very strong vitality, and their leaves still maintained a perfect anatomical structure and ultrastructure. Our observations provide new evidence for the unique pattern of tree aging, especially healthy aging. Understanding the relationships between leaf structure and tree age will enhance the understanding of tree aging.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree age did not affect the leaf anatomical structure or ultrastructure of Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae)

Zhou

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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“…Centenarians were once believed to be rare, but nowadays they are becoming increasingly common [ 1 ]. In the United States, there are approximately 10–20 centenarians per 100 000 population, averaging approximately 80 000 [ 2 ]. In Okinawa Japan, there are approximately 50 centenarians per 100 000 population [ 2 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the United States, there are approximately 10–20 centenarians per 100 000 population, averaging approximately 80 000 [ 2 ]. In Okinawa Japan, there are approximately 50 centenarians per 100 000 population [ 2 ]. The general consensus suggests that for a person to live to extreme old age, there has to be a series of molecular aging events working harmoniously with cellular events over time to maintain health [ 3 – 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has also been observed that centenarians may be predisposed to a prolonged survival because there has been significant delay in the manifestation of associated disabling symptoms and/or morbidity [ 7 ], even in those centenarians who have reached this milestone with age-related diseases. Although the factors that increase longevity are not well described, it has been suggested that new developments in medicine; better quality and increased availability of health care; worldwide access to healthy food; and access to housing and genetics may contribute to increasing the life span of a population [ 2 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Common cancers in centenarians

et al. 2014

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BackgroundA Centenarian is a person who attains and lives beyond the age of 100. Four percent of centenarians die from cancer. It is therefore important to understand which cancers affect them in order to devise better methods to prevent and treat them. The aim of this study was to investigate the top cancers that affect centenarians.Material/MethodWe identified 1385 cases with the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) database. Our study included centenarians age 100–115 years diagnosed with the 5 most common cancers between 1973 and 2007 in the United States. Observed survival (OS) was calculated for each cancer type. The Kaplan-Meier (KM) method was used to calculate OS at 1-month intervals for the first 40 months after diagnosis using SEER*Stat version 7.04. A log rank test was performed on KM survival output and a Cox proportional hazard model was used to calculate hazard ratios. All statistical analyses were performed with 95% confidence intervals with significance determined at P<0.05. Cox proportional hazard analysis was done using GraphPad Prism version 5.04.ResultsThere were 879 (63.47%) females and 506 (36.53%) males. There were 1118 (80.72%) whites, 159 (11.48%) blacks, and 108 (7.80%) other. The top cancers were 405 (29.24%) breast, 267 (19.28%) colorectal, 254 (18.34%) prostate, 247 (17.83%) lung and bronchus, and 212 (15.31%) urinary and kidney cancer cases.ConclusionsAs the prevalence of centenarians increases, it is becoming increasingly important to become aware of the cancers that affect them in order to better manage them.

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“…Such considerations can also be found in studies conducted in the old population of Okinawa, an island in Japan, where although genes are considered as an important factor to predict longevity, it is the environment that has a great impact on the way people become old. Therefore diet, physical activity, smoking, social and political role do play an important part in healthy aging (Suzuki et al, 2016). We underlie the fact that research in this domain has to help understand how people can live longer in a healthy way, thus maintaining good cognitive abilities which allow to also have a good quality of life with satisfactory relationships with peers and younger people.…”

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confidence: 99%

Importance of good mental health assessment to promote healthy aging

Scelzo¹

2021

Int. Psychogeriatr.

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Research and studies around older popultion have greatly increased during the last twenty years. This is mainly due to the fact that the number of men and women who reach an older age is growing, thanks to the improvement of medical technology which is resulting in a longer life expectancy (Shotton, 2003).Already back in the Eighties of XXth century in USA data collected from various studies demonstrated that there was a large number of people who had reached an older age, and this had given birth to a debate regarding the social role and the quality of life they were living (White Riley et al, 1989). Changes in the structure of the families have brought to a different role of the elderly, who often in modern societies, end up living their last years of their lives in residential homes together with other peers, and away from their loved ones. This is especially true when the elderly have diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's desease, since these conditions imply that they have to be looked after during all the day and sometimes the conditions are so severe that they need a more specialized nursing assistance. This is the reason why many research have pointed their attention mainly on the positive traits of the oldest old, in order to understand which are the factors that can predict a healthier aging. In a research conducted in a small popultion of centenarians and nearly centenarians in Cilento, an area situated in the south of Italy, for example, it was found that they declared that what had allowed them to reach such a age, was, among other factors, the fact they still had a role in their families with which they were still living (Scelzo, et al., 2017). Almost all of them had no sign of dementia nor Alzheimer. Such considerations can also be found in studies conducted in the old population of Okinawa, an island in Japan, where although genes are considered as an important factor to predict longevity, it is the environment that has a great impact on the way people become old. Therefore diet, physical activity, smoking, social and political role do play an important part in healthy aging (Suzuki et al, 2016). We underlie the fact that research in this domain has to help understand how people can live longer in a healthy way, thus maintaining good cognitive abilities which allow to also have a good quality of life with satisfactory relationships with peers and younger people. This is why we welcome works like the one written by Obhi et al, since we need to have instruments that can be used to evaluate memory performance and executive function. As a matter of fact through studies conducted via neuroimaging, it has been found that the executive function,

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Okinawa Centenarian Study: Investigating Healthy Aging among the World’s Longest-Lived People

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

Tree age did not affect the leaf anatomical structure or ultrastructure of Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae)

Tree age did not affect the leaf anatomical structure or ultrastructure of Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae)

Common cancers in centenarians

Importance of good mental health assessment to promote healthy aging

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