Longevity Secrets Of Centenarians

How Grandma Kay got to 100 by slowing the aging process.

👋 Hello, I’m Kevin Ferguson, author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 a memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Book summary) 🍇 This is my newsletter. It includes book research and early release chapters about winemaker Mario Gemello and his centenarian widow, Kay Gemello. 📖 They are my lovable maternal grandparents. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button.

Here’s a middle chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

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How Grandma Kay Got To 100 By Slowing The Aging Process

One night in early February of 2020, Grandma Kay didn’t feel well. She struggled to describe any pain or feeling of discomfort when complaining to my mom on the phone.

“I just don’t feel well,” she said.

“Take your blood pressure. If it’s too high, push the button and have them take you to ER,” my mom told her. The “button” was a medical alert pendant Grandma Kay wore around her neck.

For a stretch before her 99th birthday, Grandma Kay’s doctor ordered her to take her blood pressure regularly. She kept a small journal on her kitchen table next to the device she’d use to track her blood pressure trends a few times a day. She’d sit at the table, strap the cuff around her upper left arm and pump.

This time, the monitor read: 200-100, about 30 percent higher than what was normal for her. Ten minutes later, she was being rushed to El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.

In a span of three hours, the doctor asked her a series of questions, which resulted in her writing in her chart: patient complains of vague bodily discomfort.  More tests were done, including her blood pressure, which came back: 150 - 80. Relatively normal for her age. 

The head doctor relayed the score to my mom. 

“Wow. That’s great! I wish my blood pressure was that normal,” said my mom, who was 76 at the time, and a pescatarian-yoga enthusiast.

The doctor laughed,  “Competitive family. Wouldn’t want to come to your house for game night.”

Grandma Kay rebounded from her discomfort, and 16 months later she became a centenarian, joining one of the fastest growing segments of the population.

“Proper screening for high blood pressure is a huge reason [for more people reaching 100],” says Dr. Tom Perls, founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University medical center. Grandma Kay is among the 3,000+ centenarians Dr. Perls’ researchers are studying.

Thirty years ago, centenarians represented one in every 10,000 people in the United States. Today, that ratio has been slashed in half. One in every 5,000.

Many things have contributed to this, besides improved blood pressure screening, Dr Perls said. An increase in healthy behaviors, such as improved diet, exercise, reduction in smoking and managing stress are important examples.

Grandma Kay’s mother, Manda Bess, died at 76 in 1962 of something that is routinely screened for when I go to the doctor today for a physical: high cholesterol and high blood pressure. That turned out to be part of a lethal combination of Great Grandma Bess’ symptoms, tied to a buildup of plaque in her arteries, known as atherosclerosis.

One night while she slept, a blood clot formed, disrupting blood flow triggering a cardiac arrest and she died suddenly.

“And by doing so, people had a less chance of [dying from] hypertension, kidney failure and stroke,” Dr. Perls said.

In the mid 1960s, the recognition that high blood pressure could be screened for and treated was “a huge reason” for an increase in life expectancy, said Dr. Perls. “And by doing so, people had a less chance of [dying from] hypertension, kidney failure and stroke.”

Hypertension (high blood pressure) in adults increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes.

On the other side of Grandma Kay’s gene pool, her father died even younger. Great Grandpa Ivan Volarevic¹ passed away at 43 of lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker and worked in hazardous conditions as a silver miner.²

"Had he not had those exposures, who knows how long he would have lived,” said Dr. Perls.

What Can We Control?

While some people see living to 100 as a goal to shoot for, Grandma Kay throughout her nineties, frequently said that wasn’t hers, despite being encouraged by several family members.

But what has made it possible has been her ability to slow the aging process, by dodging age-related diseases, like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. That’s a key factor among people who make it into their nineties, according to Dr. Perls.

Her two sisters did as well, but her two brothers did not. The five of them are the American family portrait. Their average life expectancy was equal to that of the American population: 77.8.³

Her last surviving sibling, half-sister Mary Bess-Moore, made it to her 98th birthday in August, 2022. She passed away that day in her skilled nursing community home. Grandma Kay’s other sister, Rose Volarvich-Lesslie, died at 93.

Her brothers brought down the family average, which is in keeping with American society. Her brother Mitch battled health challenges related to kidney disease in high school, severe enough to stay back a grade, before graduating in the same class as his younger sister, my Grandma Kay. Unfortunately, he lost his health battle and died at 19 in 1940. Kay’s oldest brother, Pete, died closer to the American average. He died at 80 after suffering a neck injury during a fall in his home.

When asked if there was any research explaining why women tend to outlive men, Dr. Perls said it’s mostly theoretical. But life expectancy stats do signify that it is reality. “We also know that 85 percent of centenarians are women,” he added.

A heathy lifestyle, such as a good diet with minimal or no red meat, daily exercise, not smoking, and limited alcohol consumption, can add ten or more years to many people’s life. These practices can minimize the chance of a person dying of age-related diseases. Women suffer from these diseases in their eighties and men in their seventies, Dr. Perls said.

People have a certain amount of control to get to age 90. About 75 percent is driven by healthy behaviors, he said. “The other 25 percent is genetics. When talking about getting to 100, a person’s longevity is slightly less dependent on healthy behaviors. It’s about 60 percent [heathy behaviors], while genetics influence about 40 percent.”

Cognitive activities, like doing crossword puzzles, playing Chinese Checkers or learning a new instrument, is believed to be helpful in increasing a person’s longevity, Dr. Perls said.

“Just like exercising muscles is important as in strength training and balance, exercising your brain is important as well in developing new connections with the brain,” Dr. Perls said. 

“My analogy is in the midwest along the railroad tracks there are these telephone [poles] that have lots and lots of wires, not just one wire. And if you have a neurodegenerative process or if you want to decrease the communication from one part of the country to the other, you have to start snipping at the wires. 

“But if there are a lot of wires to cut, you have to snip at more and more wires before it becomes a problem,” he added. 

Some of the best ways to “build those connections,” he said, is to learn a new instrument or a new language. “Those are hard to do, but the more you do them, it becomes easier. This is probably because of the connections you are making in the brain.

“If you are not willing to do the difficult things, at least do something that is new and different,” Dr. Perls said.

“If you are not willing to do the difficult things, at least do something that is new and different,” Dr. Perls said. “Like painting, then switch to sculpting, then crossword puzzles or sudoku.”

Throughout the pandemic, Grandma Kay’s activity of choice wasn’t as challenging as learning a new language. She’d get lost in coloring in an adult coloring book. Every couple of weeks, my mom would be ordering a new one for her. She’d color as she’d watch the Giants game or the evening news.

Then one day about a year or so later, she gave it up out of boredom. This was sometime after she had turned 100. The next time I came to visit, she had picked up a new hobby that unbeknownst to her was likely reconnecting those wires in her brain. The hobby: word search puzzles.

Centenarians have just as many genes that are associated with age-related diseases as the general population, said Dr. Perls. 

“What’s different about centenarians is that they likely have protective genes as well,” Dr. Perls said. “These are genes that protect against those [diseases]. Each one has a modest effect in influencing how long we live, but when you get the right combination [of genes], you have a greater chance to live to 100.”

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1. Ivan Volarevic was Manda Bess’ first husband. Their first son, Pete, Americanized the surname to “Volarvich” when he started high school.

2. Pneumoconiosis was a common lung disease among miners, resulting from the exposure to airborne respirable dust.

3. Source: CDC - February 2021 (prepandemic stats)