BY Alexa Mikhail – Fortune Well –
In 2007, researchers were on a mission to understand why some people become “SuperAgers“—those who live to their 80s without major chronic conditions and have the brain health of someone much younger. Is it genetics? Lifestyle? Luck?
Nearly two decades later, the team was surprised. “We didn’t find these gene variants that we thought we might find,” Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, which conducted the study, tells Fortune.
This cohort of over 1,000 people with the average age of 87, who Topol refers to as “the wellderly,” helped scientists uncover a new meaning of “SuperAgers”—one that gives much more weight to lifestyle than previously thought.
“There’s only a small component here that’s actually genetic. It’s been overestimated,” Topol says. “I was personally relieved because I have such a terrible family history. That felt good, that, hey, maybe I’m not destined to suffer the same illnesses.”
Topol’s latest book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, is the result of decades of work and highlights the keys to living longer.
