Board Member in the News: Nir Barzilai on genes and centenarians in ELLE India
On August 2, 2017, ELLE India featured 1997 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging scholar, 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, and AFAR Deputy Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD.
The article, World’s oldest people credit drinking and eating junk as the secret to a long life, looks closely at the different lifestyles of 11 centenarians.
Dr. Barzilai suggests that genes play a very large role in becoming a centenarian. He shares: “Genetic factors are more dominating (than lifestyle factors) at exceptional older ages. In our (study of) centenarians, almost 50 per cent were obese or overweight, smokers, and not exercising even moderately. That is why we study them — because their interaction with environment is not exemplary and still they make it.”
Read the full article here.
Nir Barzilai, MD is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research and the Director of the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Biology of Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
For more information on longevity, we encourage you to explore our expert-edited Infoaging Guide to Longevity here.