(Via the Americal Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study gives an interesting perspective in this paper: "Many people believe that the older a person gets, the sicker he or she becomes. The result can be quite a pessimistic view of very old age. If this were true, most if not all centenarians would have significant disability. However, ~90% of centenarians in a population-based study were functionally independent at the average age of 92 y. Thus, to achieve extreme old age, a much more enabling point of view emerges: the older an individual gets, the healthier he or she has been. Centenarians thus have the potential to represent a model of relative resistance to age-related diseases and slower aging." Of course, a more modern school of thought states that it'll be far more efficient and effective to jump straight to reversing aging rather than trying to slow it or cure the end results, one by one.

Link: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/2/484S