New book explores the science behind ‘super aging’ and longer, healthier lifespans

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• Ali Rogin:

  Imagine a future where the aging process can be delayed and more people live active, healthy, disease free lives well into their 90s. That reality may be here sooner than you think, according to Dr. Eric Topol, author of the recently published book "Super Agers: An Evidence Based Approach to Longevity." I talked to him earlier this week about the rapidly advancing science of Health Aging.

  Dr. Topol, thank you so much for joining us. What is a superager?

  Dr. Eric Topol, Author, "Super Agers": A superager we could roughly define as somebody over age 85 who's never had cancer, heart disease or any sign of neurodegenerative disease.

• Ali Rogin:

  And what research were you undertaking that led you to coin this term and identify this population?

• Eric Topol:

  Yeah, well, we actually called it the Welderly study. It was a very long study of seven years to find 1,400 people. And we did genome sequencing of this 1,400 person group and we found very little of genetic underpinnings to explain their remarkable healthspan.

• Ali Rogin:

  So what are some of the keys to becoming a superager and is it ever too late to start trying to become one?

• Eric Topol:

  People who are physically active, who have a healthy diet, have good sleep, health that connected with other people, these are all factors that contributed in the elderly. Some of it is luck, some of it, of course, is genetics. But that's not a dominant thing. And the biggest thing that I think we've uncovered beyond that study is that the immune system is playing a critical role in keeping people healthy at 8th, 9th and 10th decade of life.

  We know that the major age related diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, they take 20 years to incubate in our bodies before they actually show clinically. So we have such a great runway and we have so many ways to help prevent these diseases or certainly defer them for a long time from ever occurring.

• Ali Rogin:

  And you write about a health span. How does that differ from a person's lifespan?

• Eric Topol:

  Right. Ali, that is the biggest gap that we have to get over, which is we don't want to go after longevity per se, because if you have Alzheimer's or If you're frail with so little quality of life, that really isn't the objective. But if we can maximize the years of healthy aging healthspan, that is the primary goal.

• Ali Rogin:

  And how long do you think humans are capable of prolonging that health span?

• Eric Topol:

  I think if we get people into their late 80s and 90s fully healthy without these age related diseases, that ought to be the goal. Some of these folks might even get beyond 100 years old. But if we just get over 85, age 85, that's a huge improvement because right now the average person 60 is in what we call the elderly group. These people have at least one chronic age related diseases, if not multiple diseases. So we have a long way to go to flip from the elderly to the elderly super aged people.

• Ali Rogin:

  How important are genes and family history, in other words, the factors that we can't control to predicting our health outcomes?

• Eric Topol:

  There's no question that our genes do have some role, but I think that's been overestimated. It's much more the things that are, as we know, these critical lifestyle behavioral factors at play such an essential role.

• Ali Rogin:

  The notion of longevity has become a buzzword within the wellness industry. There are any number of products on the market. What are some tips you might have for somebody looking to cut through that noise?

• Eric Topol:

  Well, noise it is. It's really a circus whereby the longevity companies are marketing anti-aging supplements that have no data. There are no definitive studies to show that these things that are being marketed right now, these various supplements, these companies, these scans, have changed the course of a person's health span.

  And we actually have a much better chance to prevent these age related diseases rather than promoting things that have no basis or data to back them up.

• Ali Rogin:

  The book is "Super Agers." Dr. Eric Topol, thank you so much for joining us.

• Eric Topol:

  Oh, thanks so much for the chance to talk about it with you.