Maria Branyas Morera was a supercentenarian from Spain who lived to be 117 years old before she died last year.
Maria experienced two world wars, saw 21 American presidents, and witnessed many changes that completely transformed life since her birth.
She was born in the US but moved to Catalonia in 1915, where she spent the rest of her long life.
Before she died, Maria requested that doctors study her DNA to find out what made her the oldest living person, hoping it would help others live longer.
This led doctors in Spain to look into her biological profile as part of a study done by a group of scientists, which included researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute. They gathered samples from Maria and studied her cells and genetics, according to the Mirror.
In an interview with the Times, Dr. Manel Esteller, the main researcher on the project, mentioned, “Typically, as we get older, we tend to get sicker, but she was different, and we wanted to find out why. For the first time, we've managed to distinguish between aging and being ill.”
Dr. Esteller continued: “We can create medications that mimic the effects of beneficial genes. Maria's parents provided her with excellent genes, but we don't have the ability to choose our parents.
The findings indicated that she was biologically 10 to 15 years younger, making her seem more like a lively hundred-year-old rather than her real age when she passed away. She also had very low amounts of ‘bad' cholesterol and triglycerides, along with very high amounts of ‘good' cholesterol.
Maria lived a healthy lifestyle that involved lots of exercise, no bad habits like smoking or drinking, and she had a wonderful social life.
But there was one more thing she really enjoyed that might have helped her live longer; the yogurt from her favorite Spanish brand, La Fageda.
This yogurt is a probiotic type that has bacteria that help fight inflammation.
As reported by the Mirror, Maria began her mornings with a smoothie full of cereals, using eight different kinds of cereal.
Science Alert reported that scientists found a lot of erosion in Maria's telomeres, which are the protective ends of chromosomes. Even though short telomeres are usually connected to a higher chance of dying, new studies say they might not be a good sign of aging in very old people. In Maria's situation, her unusually short telomeres could have actually helped her by possibly stopping cancer cells from growing.
“The picture that comes from our study, even though it's just about this one amazing person, shows that being very old and not being healthy are not always connected,” said the researchers led by epigeneticists Eloy Santos-Pujol and Aleix Noguera-Castells, according to Science Alert.
Dr. Esteller wrapped up by saying that “the secrets to living a long time are a mix of what we get from our parents and what we do in our lives,” adding that “this mix can vary, but it might be […] half and half.”
Please SHARE this article with your family and friends on Facebook.
