This Group of Amish Live Longer. Here’s Why.

More than two decades ago, a young Amish woman presented with an unusual bleeding problem. Indianapolis hematologist Dr. Amy Shapiro and colleagues discovered that she was born with two copies of a genetic mutation in a key component of the internal clot-dissolving system. More recently, scientists from Northwestern Medicine hypothesized that partial deficiency in the gene might protect from aging. A Northwestern team working together with Shapiro and her colleagues discovered that carriers of the mutation show evidence of delayed biological aging and protection from aging-related disease. Importantly, these carriers of a single mutation do not have the bleeding problem that originally alerted Shapiro.