Severisth --
It's been known for some time that genetics plays a role in the lives
of centenarians. People who live that long have many relatives alive.
Studies in the late 1990s not only confirmed it but started to
identify some aspects of the genome that contribute to longer lives.
HELEN BOLEY
=============
On April 5, 1991, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page
article on a woman in Kansas named Helen Boley, the only known person
to have the so-called "Methuselah gene" inherited from both sides of
her family. When she was born 7 of her great-grandparents were still
alive. Grandparents with only a single copy of the gene all lived to
their late 90s or into their 100s -- even though they had only one
copy of the gene.
Boley's own resistance to disease was attributed to an extraordinarily
low bad (LDL) cholesterol and an extraordinarily high level of good
(HDL) cholesterol. Though the Journal article is not available online
(not even the WSJ.com site goes that far back), here's a brief
synopsis:
Cryonet Archives
http://keithlynch.net/cryonet/3/11.html
RECENT STUDIES
================
Beyond the impact of cholesterol alone on heart disease, researchers
in the late 1990s discovered that the significant age-related diseases
were all delayed significantly (into the 90s) for centenarians. In
the New England Centenarian Study, Thomas T. Perls, a Harvard
geriatrician; Margery Hutter Silver, a neuropsychologist; and John F.
Lauerman, a health writer, discovered that heart disease, cancer and
dementia (usually caused by Alzheimer's Disease) were missing in the
centenarians until the late 90s -- or even past age 100. Unlike
younger groups, infectious diseases were more a danger to this group.
The researchers summarize their own results on this overview page for
the New England Centenarian page:
Boston University School of Medicine
"The New England Centenarian Study"
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=361&PageID=5924
And, their work resulted in this book:
Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age
(New York City: Basic Books, 1999).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465041434/104-7079124-8836748?v=glance
GENOMICS
==========
More recent work is trying to track exactly what the mechanisms are
within the genome. Already, it's known that genetic manipulation in
flatworms and drosophila (fruit flies) will produce animals that live
20-30% longer. So, now efforts are turning to specific aspects of the
human population. A company called DeCode Genetics has claimed some
early success in studying the Icelandic population:
The Observer
"Discovery of 'Methuselah gene' unlocks secret of long life," (McKie, Feb. 3, 2002)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,644020,00.html
So, stay tuned -- the next 10 years will be interesting.
Google search strategy:
"Methuselah gene"
"Helen Boley"
"Methuselah gene" + cholesterol
Ashkenazi + "Centenarian Study"
"New England Centenarian study"
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
