Researchers at Boston University and the Tufts Medical Center have collaborated on a new study that theorizes people who live longer may have uniquely high-functioning immune systems.
The study focused on the centenarian population, individuals who are 100 or more years of age. As of 2021, around 0.27% of the U.S. population — a total of 89,739 — were centenarians, according to Boston University.
More people have begun living to 100 and beyond. According to The Hill, there were nearly twice as many centenarians in 2021 as in 2011. This growth is attributed to population increase, medical advances, and lifestyle changes.
According to the researchers, the data suggest that centenarians have “unique, highly functioning immune systems that have successfully adapted to a history of insults allowing for the achievement of exceptional longevity.”
Usually, a person’s immune system efficiency in responding to illness and disease will steadily decline as they age. The study posits that these centenarians’ immune systems do not appear to follow this trend.
The researchers examined the immune cells of seven random centenarian participants and compared them to public data on additional centenarians and younger populations aged 20-89.
Paola Sebastiani, a senior author of the study, told USA Today that the data support “the hypothesis that centenarians are enriched with protective factors that increase their ability to recover from infections.”
Still, researchers do not know why some people have these unique immune systems. They suggested that one way to explore the topic further would be to study centenarian offspring, their immune cells, and their aging process.
Although not mentioned in this particular study, other research has shown that longevity is linked to a lower body mass index (BMI). The lowest death rates were found in women with a BMI of 22.0 to 23.4 and among men with a BMI of 23.5 to 24.9, VeryWell Health reported.
Conversely, research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that individuals struggling with obesity live, on average, 13 years less than others of similar backgrounds who are not obese.
Obesity is one of the leading health epidemics in Texas and across the nation, as often highlighted by The Dallas Express.
Stefano Monti, also a senior author in the centenarian study, told USA Today, “The answer to what makes you live longer is a very complex one. There’s multiple factors, there’s the genetics — what you inherit from a parent, there’s lifestyle, there’s luck.”