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Living longer is a far cry from aging well. Not many of us would want to live for an extensive time after our quality of life had significantly deteriorated, yet as a species we are surviving to much greater ages than our ancestors. A few people manage to achieve the best possible outcome, a very long and healthy life.
Of course, much can be explained away in terms of access to good nutrition, healthcare and educating ourselves against life shortening toxins such as smoking, but not all longevity can be attributed to environmental conditioning.
I’m sure we’ve all got that one relative who has done all the things you shouldn’t do; eaten junk foods, avoided healthy fruits and veggies, smoked and drank to excess and still barely has a grey hair on their head to betray their ripe old age, but what is it that singles out these miraculous die-hards from the rest of us?
It turns out that there is an unusual gene variant that gives these old-timers a superpower over their mental faculties.
Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr Jihye Paik and her colleagues, identified this rare gene in studies on humans who live beyond one hundred years. The variant has a catchy acronym of FOXO3 or Foxhead Box Protein O3. Her study follows on…