Best of Think '25: The secrets of super healthy old people
Think from KERA
KERA
4.7 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
Our genes don’t really determine how well we’ll age in later life — and that’s good news. Dr. Eric Topol is executive vice president and a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, the largest nonprofit biomedical institute in the United States. He’s also a practicing cardiologist, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the study of what he calls the “wellderly” – those people who age to 80 without chronic disease – and the findings that he says can help us all reach that milestone. His book is “Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity.”
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| 0:00.0 | Have you heard about OMG? Yes. This is a website the New York Times wirecutter featured as one of their most popular gifts. And for good reason, it presents new findings from the largest ever research study into women's pleasure and intimacy. In partnership with researchers at Yale and at Indiana University, they asked tens of thousands of women what they |
| 0:21.6 | wished they and their partners had discovered sooner. They found the patterns in those |
| 0:26.2 | discoveries and all that wisdom and intimacy is organized as hundreds of short videos, |
| 0:31.6 | animations, and how-toes. When you see OMG, yes, you might understand why wirecutter recommended it. |
| 0:38.2 | It is warm, honest, and has regular women talking about real experiences. |
| 0:42.7 | It's truly eye-opening. |
| 0:44.8 | See for yourself at omgyes.com. |
| 0:47.3 | That's OMGS.com. There was a research project that started in 2008 with the goal of figuring out what connects the small fraction of people who reach the age of 80 without having developed any chronic diseases or medical problems. One of the |
| 1:12.1 | first steps for scientists was to take DNA samples from these healthy older folks, the study |
| 1:17.5 | dubbed them welderly, to find out whatever genetic, lucky endowment they shared. Researchers did not |
| 1:24.2 | find any magic bullet gene that keeps minds and bodies working well for decades longer than average. |
| 1:30.1 | And that turns out to be good news. |
| 1:32.7 | From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. |
| 1:37.0 | If there is not some single genetic asset that conveys health in old age, some mutation we either possess or don't, |
| 1:45.8 | that means there are a lot of things we can all do to delay or even prevent lots of age-related maladies as we get older. |
| 1:51.7 | And my guest, who was an author on the Welderly Study and is a cardiologist by profession, |
| 1:56.5 | is eager to share what he and his colleagues have learned with anybody who is willing to listen. |
| 2:06.6 | Dr. Eric Topal is Executive Vice President and Professor of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. |
| 2:10.6 | His newest book is called Super Agers, an evidence-based approach to longevity. |
| 2:14.6 | All this week, we're listening back to our favorite shows of |
| 2:18.0 | 2025. And as we gather around with friends and family, I thought it would be nice to bring back |
| 2:23.2 | a show about staying healthy and active well into our golden years. I hope there are a few lessons |
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