iProsper Media has interviewed two scientists whose recent findings, Human Longevity and a New Vision of Aging, were presented at the CARP conference. The video, recently released on YouTube, discusses their findings on what factors can contribute to exceptionally long life (100 years or more).
The two scientists, Dr. Leonid Gavrilov and Dr. Natalia Gavrilova, are husband and wife researchers who have been in the field of aging science for over 3 decades.
In their most recent findings, they looked to "success stories" of aging by reviewing birth data of centenarians, or people who have lived to 100. Some of their findings after analysing the data were surprising, such as the fact that people born in the autumn – specifically the month of November – have a higher chance of living to 100 and tend to live longer. Dr. Natalia Gavrilova said in her presentation that although November babies don't live very much longer, they do so consistently and it is notable throughout the numerous sets of data analysed.
This ties in with the researchers' findings that living longer "begins at birth," with not just in terms of the 9 months spent in the womb but also the early stages of having an effect on a person's ability to live to 100. For instance, when studying centenarians and their shorter-lived siblings, they found that children born to younger mothers have a twice higher likelihood of living to 100.
Meanwhile, in a study of centenarian men, they found that men with 'stocky' stature were less likely to live to 100, while having multiple children and having the occupation of farmer significantly increased these chances.
When opening the presentation, Dr. Leonid Gavrilov pointed out some basic myths about aging, chief among them being the fact that aging is only for the elderly. In fact, "aging is a topic for everybody and everyone to be concerned about," said Dr. Gavrilov, because "aging is a problem for everyone older than 10 years." After our 10th birthday, chances of mortality increase and doubles after every 8 years that we've lived.
It seems, then, that living to 100 is an incredible feat – and one, according to research, that often depends on the circumstances of our birth.