- A study from the American Federation for Aging Research is looking into what contributes to people living until 95 and beyond.
- SuperAgers and their adult children are welcome to enroll in the study.
- 95-year-old Sally Froelich shares her journey as a SuperAger.
At 95 years old, Sally Froelich has a wealth of life experiences.
In 1950, she began working at Macyโs Department store in New York City and eventually landed a role at Bloomingdaleโs, where she was hired to interview people during its morning breakfast offerings. Her interactions with customers led to the creation of โThe Sally Froelich Show,โ which aired for more than 20 years.
โThe guests would talk to me, and the audience would ask questions. It was a lot of fun,โ she told Healthline.
She recalls a series for the show called โThe Vital Years,โ in which she talked with different experts about the aging process.
โI was about 60 years old at the time, and it was really about people my age today โ second marriages, exercise, different problems, grandchildren, etc.,โ said Froelich.
Remembering the series strikes a chord with her as she is currently one of 600 people participating in the SuperAgers Family Study conducted by the American Federation for Aging Research.
The study aims to recruit 10,000 SuperAgers, who researchers define as people 95 and older who are in good physical and mental health.
The study also enrolls the SuperAgersโ adult children and the childrenโs spouses who do not have SuperAger parents.
โThey are just as important as the SuperAgers because we need to draw comparisons in the frequency of the genes,โ Sofiya Milman, MD, MS, national expert on aging and Director of Human Longevity Studies at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Healthline.
โThe ultimate goal of the study is to help us understand what biology contributes to people living long and healthy lives, and specifically, weโre interested in what genes may play a role in contributing to peopleโs ability to stay disease-free as they get older.โ
By identifying the genes that contribute to peopleโs longevity, Milman hopes that scientists will be able to develop medications and drugs that can mimic the role of genes that SuperAgers possess so that others who do not inherit those genes can also live longer, healthier lives.
She said older research has implicated genes as likely contributors to longevity, including genes that regulate HDL cholesterol and that control growth hormones.
Moreover, she said genes play a more prominent role than lifestyle in SuperAgers. She determined this by comparing the lifestyles of SuperAgers from previous studies to the lifestyles of people from their generation who did not become SuperAgers.
โWe found that they had very similar lifestyles โ they didnโt differ in smoking, tobacco or alcohol use, or in their diet, or exercise, so there were really no differences, and yet a small group achieved SuperAger status, and another group did not,โ said Milman.
Lifestyle still matters for longevity despite your genes
While more Americans are living longer lives today than in past generations, Milman said only about 0.1% live to be 95 or older, most likely due to genetics.
For the other 99.9% of the population, she said lifestyle habits can help stave off age-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
โThe difference is that you can probably delay the onset of age-related diseases with a healthy lifestyle, although itโs unclear whether having a healthy lifestyle will get you to age 95 or 100,โ said Milman.
One way to think about it is that 20 to 40% of longevity is due to your genes, which means 60 to 80% is what happens to you when youโre alive, said Rosanne Leipzig, MD, PhD, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai and author of Honest Aging: An Insiders Guide to the Second Half of Life.
Some of that comes down to lucky circumstances, she noted.
โYou really donโt have a lot of control over the education you get, prenatal environment, your childhood nutrition, your access to medical care, whether you live in a polluted area โ all which can contribute to health and longevity,โ Leipzig told Healthline.
She points to the concept of โweathering,โ which says that the health of African American women may begin to deteriorate in early adulthood as a physical consequence of cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage.
When given access to healthy lifestyle choices, however, how you choose them can make a difference, Leipzig added.
โWe have a lot of control,โ she said. โLetโs just say you can certainly make sure you die early.โ
How to live a longer, healthier life, according to a SuperAger
In addition to genetics, many lifestyle habits that have been touted for years can help keep you healthy. Froelich practices the following:
- Eat a balanced diet. โI eat three meals a day. I donโt overeat,โ she said.
- Donโt smoke or drink excessively. Smokers experience three times the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease or stroke than non-smokers. Additionally, a study found that adults who drink 7 to 14 drinks per week could expect, on average, a six-month shorter life expectancy as of age 40.
- Maintain a healthy weight. Froelichโs weight hasnโt changed in 50 years. โMy body certainly has changed; Iโve gotten dumpier, but thatโs part of life,โ she said.
- Exercise regularly. Froelich played sports most of her life and continues to golf two to three times a week. She also exercises six days a week for 20 minutes by engaging in daily stretches and performing 80 sit-ups in bed when she wakes up. Three days a week, she lifts 8-pound weights with her arms and 5-pound weights with her legs.
- Use your brain. Froelich plays bridge once a week with friends and a few times a week online. She also listens to audiobooks and watches television in the morning and evenings.
- Stay socially connected. In May 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report stating that half of American adults are lonely and that loneliness poses severe risks to health and longevity. In addition to golfing, to stay connected to others, Froelich goes out to lunch and to dinner on a weekly basis. She also sees her children once a week and tries to visit with her grandchildren in person or via Zoom. โI find that if Iโve been hanging around the house a lot, I just go out and walk around the block,โ she said.
- Find joy. Froelich feels lucky to be alive well into her 90s and she said itโs important to โdo what you want to do and things that make you happy. Eat ice cream and delicious chocolate.โ
- Take care of yourself. Rather than not caring how you look, Froelich said, โKeep your hair done, your nails done, and keep looking nice. And be sure you have somebody that will tell you if you have a spot on you or [if] anything is off.โ
- Think about aging as a good thing. A personโs perception of aging influences what their aging will be like, however, not necessarily their longevity, said Leipzig. โThereโs good work out there that suggests people with a positive perception of aging live about 7.5 more years and live better,โ she said.
The bottom line
Living to be a SuperAger may not be in everyoneโs genes, but Milman said as people age, disability and disease are not a given.
โThere are many people who remain healthy and independent and have a good quality of life as they get older, so we shouldnโt conflate aging always with disease and disability,โ she said.
SuperAgers give her hope for discovering โthe secretโ to aging well.
โWe hope this research will help us all live longerโฆeven if we are not that 0.1 percent of the population who inherit genes,โ she said.
Visit the organization’s website to enroll in the SuperAgers Family Study.
