Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Reveals Crucial Differences

The blood of 'superagers' is a potential fountain of youth that scientists are keen to tap into.

Emerging evidence suggests that centenarians, who live to 100, and supercentenarians, who live to 110, have unique blood profiles that differ from those who don't live as long.

If scientists can figure out what sets the oldest among us apart and why, it may help the rest of us live longer and healthier lives, too.

Related: DNA Study of 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals Clues to a Long Life

Research suggests that centenarians begin showing favorable biomarkers in their blood at just 65 years of age.

While it's not yet clear how these blood signatures impact ongoing health, or how they are connected to genes or lifestyle, they may play a 'protective' role against age or disease.

If that's true, then they could be targets for future longevity research.

Watch the clip below for a summary of this article:

Earlier this year, researchers in Spain ran one of the most thorough physiological and genetic analyses published to date on a supercentenarian.

Maria Branyas, who reached the age of 117, was one of the world's oldest people, and her blood samples show several healthy immune system markers as well as extremely low levels of 'bad' cholesterol.

Researchers say Branyas' cells behaved as though they were much younger than her true age.

Maria Branyas on her 117th birthday. (Family archive of Maria Branyas Morera/Wikimedia Commons/PD)

Interestingly, scientists noticed a "huge erosion" in Branyas' telomeres – the caps at the ends of her chromosomes.

Telomeres protect our genetic material, and shorter ones are linked to a higher risk of death. Recent studies, however, suggest that among the oldest of the old, telomeres are not actually a useful biomarker of aging.

In fact, having very short telomeres may have provided Branyas with an advantage. Hypothetically speaking, the short lifespan of her body's cells may have stopped cancer from ever proliferating.

"The picture that emerges from our study, although derived only from this one exceptional individual, shows that extremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked," write the researchers, led by epigeneticists Eloy Santos-Pujol and Aleix Noguera-Castells.

Related: One Critical Factor Predicts Longevity Better Than Diet or Exercise, Study Says

As more people live beyond 100, centenarians have garnered increasing scientific attention, and analyzing their blood is a leading avenue of research.

A recent study from China, published in July, analyzed the blood profiles among 65 centenarians in one region.

Compared to older and middle-aged participants, those who lived to 100 had lower levels of fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and other key metabolites.

These could be potential clues, the authors say, for predicting human lifespan. One day, they could even be used for blood tests that serve as 'longevity clocks', indicating how long someone has to live.

"The plasma metabolic profiles of centenarians and nonagenarians differed significantly from those of the two younger populations," write the researchers.

"Our findings will aid in understanding the metabolic regulation of longevity and may promote the clinical practice of gerontology in the future."

The bloodstream seems to be an important channel through which markers of health and longevity flow. What's in your blood can impact your body and brain, and your risk of disease and death.

Recent studies have even investigated how young blood reverses aging in human skin cells.

As enlightening as research into blood metabolomics has been, however, the vastness of the field is intimidating. Blood is inherently complex and extremely diverse. While finding biomarkers for healthy aging is useful, interpreting those results is another matter.

At this stage, there is no single blood test that can reliably predict how long a person might live based on what's flowing through their veins.

(Dimitri Otis/Getty Images)

Lifestyle, genetics, and sheer randomness can change the future course of a person's life in unpredictable ways. But maybe the blood of superagers can help us identify 'fast' agers, who are at risk of early mortality.

In November 2024, a study analyzing hundreds of metabolites in blood samples from around 5,000 individuals, aged between 18 and 110, found a unique signature associated with extreme longevity.

The findings, the authors argue, reveal a "critical role of essential fatty acids to connect lipids with other metabolic processes."

Related: A Common Diabetes Drug Is Linked to 'Exceptional Longevity' in Women

Many of the metabolites involved in aging were linked to nutrition, which suggests that diet could be a source of intervention for growing older in a healthier way.

Branyas herself ate a Mediterranean diet high in yogurt, which researchers suspect may have played a role in her lengthy life: Her gut microbiome was remarkably youthful.

A person's genome seems to play a strong role in how long they live, but genes are not fate, and environment and lifestyle can also impact the length of a person's life.

Scientists remain hopeful that research on centenarians and supercentenarians will one day translate into drug or lifestyle interventions that benefit us all.