WHAT THE "SUPER AGERS" CAN TEACH US.
The Osgood File. Sponsored by Sage - turning numbers into knowledge that your business can use. Make your business smarter and your life easier with services from Sage. This is Dave Ross, in for Charles Osgood.
We all know the key to a happy life is to keep a positive attitude about everything you do, watch your diet, and get regular exercise.
But if that's true, how do you explain the case of Irving Kahn - who told CBS Correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook that, except maybe for the positive attitude, he does none of those things?
SOT - Irving Kahn - with Dr. Jon LaPook, CBS News Medical Correspondent
"(LaPook:) What's your favorite food? (Kahn:) Rare hamburger..." (:03)
And yet, guess how old he is?
More after this from Charlie...
((( BREAK )))
They're called "Super Agers" - people like Irving Kahn, who's lived in New York City for so long, he remembers when cows and sheep used to graze in Central Park.
Today, he is still working at his family's financial firm.
SOT - Irving Kahn, with Dr. Jon LaPook
"(LaPook:) How old are you? (Kahn:) 107 on December 19th..." (:05)
107! Which seems extraordinary.
But his brother is 105, his sister lived to 109 - and according to his 69-year-old son Tom, that's just the way it is in the Kahn Family...
SOT - Tom Kahn, Irving's son
"We think it's normal! We've always lived with it." (:02)
...even though Irving Kahn doesn't have an especially healthy diet, doesn't exercise that much, and used to smoke.
SOT - Dr. Nir Barzilai, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
"We're trying to find out what are those biological component(s) that make us age at different rates." (:07)
And now, Dr. Nir Barzilai at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine thinks he's found one of those components.
It turns out that the Kahns are part of a group of Eastern European Jews who carry a gene variant called CETP - which controls cholesterol, heart disease and dementia.
It's like being born with a free lifetime supply of Zocor.
Dr. Barzilai is now studying ways to mimic that gene and create the mother of all anti-aging drugs.
SOT - Dr. Nir Barzilai
"Then, we can really prevent all the age-related diseases that are making life so miserable for the elderly." (:09)
In which case, they wouldn't be "elderly" - just "experienced."
The Osgood File. Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network. |
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