SHELBYVILLE, Ind. — Maybe it was a lifetime of chores on the family farm that account for Edna Parker’s long life. Or maybe good genes explain why the world’s oldest known person will turn 115 on Sunday, defying staggering odds.
Scientists who study longevity hope Parker and others who live to 110 or beyond — they’re called supercentenarians — can help uncover the mystery of extreme longevity.
“We don’t know why she’s lived so long,” said Don Parker, her 59-year-old grandson. “But she’s never been a worrier and she’s always been a thin person, so maybe that has something to do with it.”
On Friday, Parker laughed and smiled as relatives and guests released 115 balloons into sunny skies outside her nursing home. Dressed in pearls, a blue-and-white polka dot dress and new white shoes, she clutched a red rose during the festivities.
Two years ago, researchers from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University took a blood sample from Parker for the group’s DNA database of supercentenarians.
Her DNA is now preserved with samples of about 100 other people who made the 110-year milestone and whose genes are being analyzed, said Dr. Tom Perls, an aging specialist who directs the project.
“They’re really our best bet for finding the elusive Holy Grail of our field — which are these longevity-enabling genes,” he said.
There are only 75 people alive — 64 women and 11 men — who are 110 or older, according to the Gerontology Research Group, an Inglewood, Calif.-based group that verifies reports of extreme ages.
Parker, who was born April 20, 1893, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest last August after the death of a Japanese woman four months her senior.
Her two sisters also are deceased. Georgia lived to be 99, while her sister Opal was 88 when she died.
Parker’s long-lived sisters are typical of other centenarians, according to Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Aging Research in New York. Nearly all of them have a sister, a mother or other relative who lived a long life, he said.
“Longevity is in the family history,” Barzilai said.
He and other scientists have found several genetic mutations in centenarians that may play a role in either slowing the aging process or boosting resistance to age-related diseases.
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