Name: What scientists have learned from studying people over 90 | 60 Minutes Archive
Uploaded: 2024-08-09T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 13 min 35 s
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Over the next 30 years, the number of Americans age 90 and above is expected to triple.

And an NIH-funded research study, called 90PLUS at the University of California, Irvine, is trying to learn all it can, right now, from a group of men and women who've already managed to get there.

Six years ago, we first reported on their first set of findings, factors associated with longer life, exercise, moderate drinking of alcohol and caffeine, social engagement, and our favorite, putting on a few pounds as we age.

The 90PLUS study's focus is now on memory and dementia.

What they've learned, and what they haven't, drew us back, as did the 90PLUSers.

Take a quick look at when we first met them in 2014.

I was born on August 25th, 1920, and I'm 93 plus.

June 15th, 1918, and it was, I'm sure, a lovely day.

The men and women we met six years ago had all agreed to be checked out by the 90PLUS study team, top to bottom, every six months.

They were an impressive and active group.

A fellow World War II vet who drove a convertible.

I asked them, aren't you going to ask us any questions about our sex life?

And sadly, some who had begun to struggle with dementia.

Neurologist Claudia Kawas, the 90PLUS study's lead investigator, says studying the oldest old is increasingly important.

Half of all children born today in the United States and Europe is going to reach their 103rd or 4th birthday.

Half the children born today are going to live to 100?

You know, I don't feel a day older than I was yesterday.

They invited us back six years later, and we found some study participants, like Helen

Now 99, Helen showed us how she exercises in her chair.

Lou Tirado, the World War II gunner, turned 100 in August.

When he was a kid, most homes didn't have a radio.

Yeah, I tell her every evening, wake me up at 6.30 tomorrow morning.

Because of COVID-19, the 90-plus study is doing cognitive tests by phone.

But one of our favorite 90-plussers from six years ago, Ruthie Stahl, is not so lucky.

Back then, at 95, she was zipping around in her lime green bug.

But today, at 102, she didn't remember our having met.

Ruthie is as charming and upbeat as ever, but her memory is failing.

The current president or the president before him?

Is it frustrating when you can't remember?

Dr. Kawas says most people, probably even most doctors, would assume Ruthie's memory problems stem from Alzheimer's disease.

But scientists are finding out more and more about the complexities of what causes dementia.

You hear people say, she got Alzheimer's, he has Alzheimer's, when they really should say dementia.

Dementia is a loss of thinking abilities that affects your memory, your language.

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What scientists have learned from studying people over 90 | 60 Minutes Archive

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