(Mathew Phelan/ Daly Mail) — It might sound counterintuitive, but scientists say one key to living beyond 100 is plenty of experience fighting off infections.
Researchers who studied the DNA of seven centenarians found they all shared one thing in common — they’d fought lots of bugs and viruses.
Their subjects had a high number of B cells, immune cells and antibodies needed to fight off old foes.
Scientists are trying to work out whether catching and beating infections is the key, or whether centenarians are just genetically stronger in the immune department.
Lead author of the study, Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at Tufts University in Boston, said the immune profiles of centenarians show ‘a long history of exposure to infections and capacity to recover from them.’
‘We believe that centenarians have protective factors that allow them to survive the Spanish Flu, survive Covid,’ she told DailyMail.com. (…)