First autopsy study of an Okinawan centenarian: absence of many age-related diseases.
Consistent with the compression-of-morbidity hypothesis, several studies have reported that a significant proportion of centenarians delay or escape age-related diseases. Of those who live with such diseases for a long time, many appear to do so with better functional status than do younger persons who do not achieve extreme old age. The authors describe the first autopsy in an Okinawan-Japanese centenarian who escaped many age-related illnesses and delayed frailty toward the end of her very long life. Her late-life morbidity pattern is contrasted with that of white centenarians.
Bernstein
Adam M
AM
Department of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
Willcox
Bradley J
BJ
Tamaki
Hitoshi
H
Kunishima
Nobuyoshi
N
Suzuki
Makoto
M
Willcox
D Craig
DC
Yoo
Ji-Suk Kristen
JS
Perls
Thomas T
TT
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D001344:Autopsy; D001996:Bronchopneumonia / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008136:Longevity