Uncovering the Secrets of Brazilian Residents Living Long and Staying Healthy

JAKARTA - Brazil is known as a country with some of the oldest people in the world. From the oldest women and men, to families with many members over 100 years old, this country seems to be home to supercentenarians, a term for people who live more than 110 years. Not only long-lived, they are also relatively healthy and resilient.

A recent study examining 160 supercentenarians in Brazil found an interesting fact: some Brazilians not only live longer, but also stronger. Some of them were able to recover from COVID-19 before vaccines were available, something that many much younger people failed to do.

"We are very interested in finding the genetic factors responsible for extreme longevity. In this case, supercentenarians and families with many centenarians are very important to study," said Dr. Mayana Zatz from the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center, University of São Paulo, quoted from the IFL Science page.

The secret to the longevity of Brazilian residents is most likely related to the country's long history. Since the 16th century, Brazil has been a destination for Portuguese colonizers, followed by millions of enslaved Africans, as well as European immigrants from Italy, Germany, and Portugal. In the early 20th century, a large wave of Japanese immigration created the largest Japanese community outside Japan.

"This complicated ancestral lineage results in a population with high levels of genetic admixture, with unique genomic patterns that may influence multifactorial traits such as biological resistance and longevity," the authors said.

This high genetic diversity is believed to be one of the factors that make some Brazilians able to live very long and stay healthy.

Research on 1,000 Brazilian citizens over the age of 60 found 2 million new genetic variants that had not been previously documented. This suggests that Brazil is an important source for longevity-related genetic research.

For example, Dr. Zatz found a BRCA1 mutation that is usually associated with hereditary breast cancer in three women in their 90s, but all three remained healthy.

"Imagine if the same mutation is found in young women. Genetic counseling could be very different, and risk estimates should take into account data from healthy centenarians," said Zatz.

Findings like these show that studying populations that are genetically diverse can change the way we assess disease risk and develop precision medicine.

The researchers encourage the international community to expand longevity and genetics research in populations with high genetic mix, such as Brazil, so that the secrets of living longer and healthier can be revealed more thoroughly.

The long life of Brazilian citizens is not just luck. The long history of mixing their ancestors and genetic diversity may be the secret key that makes them able to break the average human life limit with relatively good health.