Life expectancy in the US sits at 79 years on average, meaning people who reach 100 are living more than two decades beyond the norm. Researchers now believe those centenarians may share what has been described as a remarkable, near “superhuman” trait.
According to research from Sweden, people who make it to 100 appear to stay healthier for longer than others.
“that live to 100 seem to possess the superhuman ability to avoid disease,”
That was the conclusion highlighted by Karin Modig, Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute.
Dr Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Geroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, used a different phrase when discussing the pattern with the Daily Mail.
“the compression of morbidity”
In his work, illness tends to be postponed until the very end of life, often only appearing in the last weeks or months. This concept was first proposed by physician James F. Fries in 1980 and has become a central framework for understanding exceptional longevity. The compression of morbidity hypothesis suggests that by delaying disease onset, centenarians manage to concentrate their illnesses into a brief period at the end of life rather than experiencing prolonged chronic disease.
Barzilai said this matched what he has seen in his own studies. He argues that the biology behind slower ageing does not only affect immunity or general wellness, but appears to influence the whole body.
Modig said the Swedish team carried out two separate investigations.
“compared long and shorter-lived people born in the same year.”
The findings showed that people who reached 100, or lived beyond it, generally experienced fewer diseases and developed them at a slower pace.
“They’re also less likely to experience deadly conditions, such as major cardiovascular disease, compared to their shorter-lived peers,”
Modig wrote in The Conversation.
In the first study, the team followed the health records of more than 170,000 people in Sweden who were born from 1920 to 1922. They were tracked over a 40-year period, starting at age 60 and continuing until death or until they turned 100.
Researchers measured and compared the likelihood of major illnesses including stroke, heart attack, hip fracture, and several forms of cancer. Overall, those who eventually reached 100 had lower disease rates across their lives, including in later midlife.
One notable result was that by age 85, only 4 percent of the people who would go on to become centenarians had suffered a stroke. Among those who came close to 100 but did not quite get there, that figure was 10 percent.
A similar pattern appeared with heart attacks. Just 12.5 percent of those who made it to 100 had experienced one, compared with 24 percent of people who died in their 80s.
The researchers therefore suggest that exceptional longevity is linked less to simply surviving serious disease and more to delaying it, or avoiding it altogether.
The second study widened the scope by looking at a larger range of illnesses. Some were severe and others less serious, but the pattern remained the same.
“Centenarians developed fewer diseases – and their rate of disease accumulation was slower across their lifetime,”
Modig stated.
The research team also reported another apparent advantage among centenarians.
“demonstrated greater resilience to neuropsychiatric conditions”
Even so, scientists say it is still too early to pin this down to one clear cause. They cannot yet say whether living longer and being
“more resistant”
to heart and brain-related disease comes from
“genetics, lifestyle, environment or a combination of these factors”.
Recent research is beginning to clarify some of these biological mechanisms. A 2026 Swiss study called “SWISS100,” the first large-scale research project dedicated to centenarians in Switzerland, examined blood protein profiles in centenarians and compared them to adults aged 30 to 60 and people in their 80s. Remarkably, across 37 proteins, centenarians showed profiles surprisingly close to those of the youngest group, particularly with notably low markers of oxidative stress and inflammation.
The research team, directed by Karl-Heinz Krause, a professor emeritus at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine, measured 724 proteins in total. The 37 proteins with distinctive patterns in centenarians appear to play roles in controlling inflammation, managing oxidative stress, regulating the extracellular matrix of the body, protecting against tumor development, and managing lipid and glucose metabolism. Notably, centenarians have significantly lower levels of antioxidant proteins than the standard geriatric population, suggesting they produce fewer harmful free radicals in the first place.
Barzilai, though, is convinced heredity matters a great deal.
“If both parents were centenarians, your life expectancy jumps by 24 percent. Even one centenarian parent gives you a 13 percent boost.”
Interest in centenarians has led to thousands of studies, with scientists trying to work out whether there are practical steps people can take to extend life, or whether the biggest factor is inherited. Recent research has also revealed that centenarians do not fit into a single category. Gerontologists classify them into three distinct groups: “escapers,” who avoid major age-related diseases altogether; “delayers,” who develop diseases much later than average; and “survivors,” who develop disease earlier in life but manage to live with it for many years, demonstrating remarkable resilience.
In another investigation, Karl-Heinz Krause, professor emeritus at UNIGE’s Faculty of Medicine, examined blood samples from centenarians, people in their 80s, and adults aged 30 to 60.
The team assessed 724 proteins and found that people over 100 often appear to age in a biologically distinct way. In particular, 37 of those proteins resembled the profiles seen in much younger participants.