Humans may be living longer on average these days, but, even so, only a fraction of us will live to see our 100th birthday. Yet the reasons why only a select few will become centenarians still remains a mystery to scientists.

But the latest work published by myself and my colleagues has just uncovered one factor that may be key to the long lives that centenarians experience. My research team has found that people that live to 100 seem to possess the superhuman ability to avoid disease.

Centenarians are of such great interest to scientists because they may hold the key to understanding how we can live longer — and live longer in better health. Some questions researchers have long pondered is whether one of the keys to a centenarian’s resilience mainly lies in their ability to postpone major diseases, or whether they’re simply better at surviving them. Or, could it be that they avoid certain diseases altogether?