WHO BECOMES A SUPER-AGER?

Genetics play a part, but there's a lot more to it than that.

- LESLIE GOLDMAN

MY GRANDFATHER was 90 when he retired from his forensic accounting career. Morty, who died in his 90s, attributed his enduring health to a glass-halffull attitude, a lifetime passion for exercise (he swam laps until a ripe old age), the love of his wife of 71 years, a daily handful of blueberries, and a nightly shot of Jack Daniels. Grandma Jeannie, 98, now lives in a long-term care facility with physical challenges but still lectures on religion-she taught Sunday school until age 85-and has a quick wit that belies her years. (My brother recently surprised her after an admittedly too-long stretch. Nearly blind, she asked, "Who's there?" "Your grandson," he said. Her reply, with feigned surprise and perfect comedic timing: “I have a grandson?")

My grandparents are what many researchers of aging, known as geroscientists, call super-agers. The exact definition varies by institution-at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's SuperAging Research Program, they're 80-plus-year-olds with exceptional memory on par with people two to three decades their junior; in the SuperAgers Family Study, cohelmed by the American Federation for Aging Research, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Boston University School of Medicine, they're 95 or older and have either evaded most age-related diseases or at least maintained general good health and can live independently. One thing everyone agrees on: These folks do aging extraordinarily well.

"These are the Betty Whites of the world," says Emily Rogalski, PhD, a neurology professor and director of the Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Research Care Center at the University of Chicago. "They're your friend or neighbor or grandparent whom you describe by saying, 'You'd never believe they're 85.' They're the people defying the current expectations out there for aging."

Genetic resilience plays a key role