Eat, Drink, and be Merry… to live into your 90s

In 2003, a team of investigators from the University of California, Irvine, started a study of the ‘oldest-old’, people in their 90s and beyond. This ‘oldest-old’ group is now the fastest growing age group in the United States of America. The 90+ Study aims to help bring to the fore questions concerning quality and quantity of life of the 90s plus people.

In the beginning, participants of the study consisted of members of the Leisure World Cohort Study (LWCS), which began in 1981. Every resident of a large retirement colony in Orange County, California, known as Leisure World (now incorporated as the city of Laguna Woods) was mailed surveys by LWCS. Researchers of The 90+Study used the 14,000 subjects from the LWCS to ask the question: What allows people to live to age 90 and beyond?

Participants of the study were visited every six months to perform neurological and neuropsychological tests, in which they were given a series of cognitive and physical tests to determine how well they were functioning. At the same time, other researchers at the Clinic for Aging Research and Education (CARE) in Laguna Woods recorded information of many different factors, including medical history, medications, diet, and activities.

The study had the following specific goals:

1. Find out the factors associated with longevity, so as to know what it is that makes people live to age 90 plus, and what types of food, activities, and lifestyles help people live longer.
2. Examine the epidemiology of dementia, so as to know how many in this age group have dementia, how many become demented each year, and what are the ways to prevent it from occurring when you are into your 90s.
3. Observe the rates of cognitive and functional decline, so as to know how memory loss and disability affect those in their 90s, and how it can be prevented.
4. Examine clinical pathological correlations in this age group, so as to know whether their brains show evidence of memory loss and dementia, and whether there are differences in their brains that can be detected and treated.
5. Determine those risk factors for mortality and dementia that can be modified, so as to know what things people can change in their lives to live longer, and whether diet, exercise, and supplements can change the risk of dementia.

The research group’s major findings were as follows:

1. Those who drank alcohol or coffee in moderate amounts lived longer than those who didn’t drink at all.
2. Those who were overweight when in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people.
3. More than 40% of this age group had dementia, and about 80% were disabled, with both being more common in women.
4. Almost half of those with dementia did not have enough neuropathology in their brain to explain their cognitive loss.
5. People of this age group with an APOE2 gene had less chances of developing clinical Alzheimer’s dementia, even though they were more likely to have Alzheimer’s neuropathology in their brain.

Reference: UCI Mind,