Doctors are studying a 116-year-old California woman to find a cure for old age.

Scientists are studying the 116-year-old San Francisco native, trying to learn the secrets of her longevity and develop cures for diseases, reports Dailymail.

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Centenarian Maria Brañas is the oldest person in the world and has no health complications other than hearing and mobility problems.

The "supergranny", who writes regularly to her X followers, beat Covid-19 in 2020, surviving the Spanish Civil War, a deadly US earthquake and a major fire.

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She advises anyone hoping to live a long life to avoid "toxic people" and avoid "excess."

Unlike most people her age, she has no cardiovascular or memory problems, and can tell stories from her childhood as if they happened yesterday.

“She is incredible,” said Dr. Manel Esteller, director of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC-CERCA) and professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona.

Dr Esteller took DNA samples, including saliva, urine and blood, from Brañas, whom he visited at her nursing home in Olot, Gerona, northern Spain.

“She has a completely clear head. She remembers with amazing clarity episodes from when she was just four years old, and she does not have any of the cardiovascular diseases that are common in older people. The only thing she has is mobility and hearing problems,” he says.

Dr. Esteller, a world leader in the field of genetics, wants to find out how much Branyas's genes explain her longevity and how much of this is related to her lifestyle.

Yogurt and moderation

Brañas, the daughter of a journalist from Pamplona, ​​was born in San Francisco, California, on March 4, 1907, but returned to Spain as a child. She lived in different areas of Catalonia. Branyas gave birth to three children. The 116-year-old woman believes that eating natural yoghurt daily and avoiding “excesses” contributes to her longevity.

“I always ate little, but everything, and never followed any regime. I didn’t suffer from any disease or have had any surgery,” she says.

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“Order, calm, good connections with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, lots of positivity and away from toxic people,” is how she describes her secret to longevity.

However, she admitted that she also believes it is down to genes and “luck,” which Dr. Esteller agrees with.

“There is obviously a genetic component to this as there are several members of her family over 90 years of age,” he explained.

His team will try to find out in the laboratory to what extent her genes protect her from age-related decline in health.

“She is clearly a person with an extraordinary capacity for resilience... She really knows how to survive,” the doctor said.

DNA is the key

The study will analyze six billion segments of her DNA, focusing on 200 genes directly linked to aging. Dr. Esteller said the results will be compared with those obtained in her middle daughter, who is 79 years old.

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She has another daughter, who is 90 years old, and a son who died in an accident when he was 77 years old.

The goal of the research is to help develop drugs that can fight diseases commonly caused by old age.

"We hope that the study of Mary's cells will give us new clues about how to combat neurodegenerative or cardiovascular diseases associated with age, as well as cancer," Esteller said.

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