Imagine a future where the aging process can be delayed and more and more people live active, healthy, disease-free lives well into their 90s.

That reality may be here sooner than you think, according to Dr. Eric Topol, author of the recently published book Super Agers, an evidence-based approach to longevity.

I talked to him earlier this week about the rapidly advancing science of health aging.

Dr. Topol, thank you so much for joining us.

What is a superager?

A superager, we could roughly define

as somebody over age 85

who has never had cancer, heart disease, or any sign of neurodegenerative disease.

And what research were you undertaking that led you to coin this term and identify this population?

Yeah, well, we actually called it the Welderly study. It was a very long study of seven years to find 1,400 people. And we did genome sequencing

of this 1,400 person group. And we found very little of genetic underpinnings to explain

their remarkable health span. So what are some of the keys to becoming a superager?

And is it ever too late to start trying to become one?

People who are physically active, who have a healthy diet, have good sleep health, that

connected with other people.

These are all factors that contributed in the welderly.

Some of it is luck. Some of it, of it, of course,

is genetics, but that's not a dominant thing. And the biggest thing that I think we've uncovered

beyond that study is that the immune system is playing a critical role in keeping people healthy

at 8th, 9th, and 10th decade of life.

We know that the major age-related diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative cardiovascular,

they take 20 years to incubate in our bodies before they actually show clinically.

...