Funded by a two-year, nearly $350,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, the University of Cincinnati’s Shawn Xiong, PhD, is analyzing real-world patient data to learn more about how GLP-1 drugs affect people with mild cognitive impairment, a common precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s not how many people you know, but how connected you feel. That difference can shape health and behavior.

Centenarians often live to 100+ due to a combination of protective genetic factors, which account for up to 50%, and healthy lifestyles, such as plant-forward diets, regular, natural movement and strong social connections. While these “agers” often possess unique immune system signatures, understanding the metabolic signs of healthy aging is not yet fully understood.

In a new study from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, researchers have discovered that centenarians have a distinct blood metabolite pattern that is not just an extension of normal aging. In particular, they show uniquely higher levels of certain primary and secondary bile acids and preserved levels of several steroids, patterns that diverge from the typical age trends seen in non-centenarians and that are linked to lower death risk.