BOSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- This family could teach all of us about
living life to its fullest.
"The Hurlburt family is positive and happy and get along fine together,"
81-year-old Peter Hurlburt told Ivanhoe.
Eleven siblings -- four feelin' fine in their 90s. The rest? Energetic in their
80s. All share several common denominators.
"We all feel good," said 93-year-old sibling Millie Hurlburt MacIsaac. "None of
us are in wheelchairs or walkers or canes."
"Don't drink, don't smoke, don't worry," 96-year-old Agnes Hurlburt Buckley
added.
Now they're all looking forward to reaching the 100-year mark.
"I never thought i would live this long," Millie said.
But why this family? Some say they won the genetic lottery.
"I think mostly because we've got good genes," said Peter.
Experts say this is the new 30-70 rule: Thirty percent of aging is genetically
based. The other 70 percent is in our hands. Right now, biologists and
geneticists are pursing the secret to longevity on a cellular and molecular
level.
"We can't control our genes," MIT biologist Lenny Guarente, Ph.D., told Ivanhoe.
"Our genes are what they are, but what we can do potentially is design drugs and
health supplements that might alleviate some of the deficits of having a bad
gene here or a bad gene there."
Dr. Guarente believes the key could be in something called sirtuins.
"Sirtuins are a family of genes that we discovered in yeast that can make the
cells live longer."
It turns out, we all have them.
"We believe by keeping these genes functioning properly, we can forestall aging.
It can slow down aging," Dr. Guarente said.
Scientists found one way to activate these anti-aging genes -- resveratrol,
which is found in grapes and red wine and already marketed as a wonder drug to
the masses.
Another promising anti-aging compound -- the cancer drug rapamycin. It extended
life in mice, but scientists say it's not ready for use in healthy people.
"They're potentially poisoning themselves," Lewis Lipsitz, M.D., director of the
Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, Mass., told
Ivanhoe. "So there are dangers in actually taking something like this, which is
not intended at all as an elixir of life. It's intended as a chemotherapeutic
unit."
Tom Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, is fighting aging in
another rather surprising way.
"I menstruate once every 8 weeks, and the way that I do that is to donate a unit
of blood," Dr. Perls told Ivanhoe.
He believes a woman's menstrual cycle is one reason women delay the onset of
age-related diseases like heart disease or stroke by 10 years.
"They're relatively iron deficient for about 30, 40 years compared to men, and
it may be as simple as less iron in your system," Dr. Perls explained.
While some believe less iron is key, others believe fewer calories can add more
healthy years to your life.
"Eating less: Of course, no one wants to follow that advice," said Dr. Lipsitz.
"They'd rather find a medication."
"The wrong food can create havoc, and it usually does," Anthony Bazzan, M.D.,
co-director of the Great Life Program at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of
Integrative Medicine in Philadelphia, Penn., told Ivanhoe. "The right food can
change the body for the better in a way that cannot be done with drugs or
supplements."
Whatever it is, it's a race against time to find the answer.
"The formula for one person to get to a very old age can be very, very different
for another," Dr. Perls said.
The Census Bureau forecasts the 65 and over population will increase from 38 to
88 million by 2050, making the Hurlburt family not one of the few -- but one of
the many defying father time.
One drug may not be the answer to a long life, but one superpill may be. Right
now, drug companies are working on combining ace inhibitors to clean up blood
vessels, statins to lower cholesterol and aspirin to prevent heart attacks into
one pill to help prolong life.
