Prime factors for a higher probability of reaching age 100+ are long telomere length and low inflammation. Newcastle University’s Institute for Ageing in the UK and Keio University School of Medicine in Japan note that severe inflammation is part of many diseases in the old, such as diabetes or diseases attacking the bones or the body’s joints, and chronic inflammation can develop from any of them. The study was published in an open-access paper in eBioMedicine.

Most people exhibit a continuous shortening of telomeres with age. But what scientists found was that the children of centenarians, who have a good chance of becoming centenarians themselves, maintained their telomeres at a “youthful” level corresponding to about 60 years of age even when they became 80 or older.

In addition, the same centenarian offspring maintained lower levels of markers for chronic inflammation. These levels increased with age in all the subjects studied, including centenarians and older, but those who were successful in keeping them low had the best chance to maintain good cognition, independence, and longevity. This study makes a strong case to assume that chronic inflammation drives human aging too; therefore, designing novel, safe anti-inflammatory or immune-modulating medication has major potential to improve healthy lifespan. However, presently available potent anti-inflammatories are not suited for long-term treatment of chronic inflammation because of their strong side-effects.