A recent perspective article on human longevity focuses on socioeconomic standards and health care. In our opinion the authors could have considered a number of distinct characteristics displayed by centenarians. This is important because these characteristics, when viewed together, provide evidence that slow aging is influenced by genetics and comes with a unique disease pattern and a need for special medical care.
First, many aging-associated diseases seem to cause less morbidity and mortality among centenarians; e.g., cancer incidence increases until about 85 y and then gradually and markedly declines to 0 to 4%. Second, stem cell division rate is reduced among old people and has been shown to be associated, possibly in a causal manner, with both cancer and atherosclerosis. Third, centenarians’ longevity may be due to a distinct genetic constitution (in addition to chance and lifestyle), as judged by accumulating data suggesting that aging is a polygenic trait, including a recent report on selection during human evolution against late-onset common diseases.
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In conclusion, there is evidence suggesting that aging is a normally distributed trait and that special medical care of slowly aging people has potential to make them live longer and for more of them to even become centenarians.
