Americans Are Living Longer: Some Even Past Their 100th Birthday

Statistics show that people are living longer and longer. And now, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more Americans are living to their 100th birthdays and beyond.

The report, Mortality Among Centenarians in the United States, 2000-2014, shows that the number of American centenarians--or those who are at least 100--has spiked to almost 44 percent from 2000 to 2014. Researchers also note that close to 80 percent of these individuals are female.

"In the early 1900s and before, people could count on losing about a quarter of their children to infectious diseases and other public health problems," Dr. Thomas Perls, a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center, told Reuters.

Lifestyle and advancing medical treatments may explain some of the report. However, researchers also noted that the causes of death differed between men and women. For instance, in 2014, centarian women typically died of heart disease and then (respectively) Alzheimer's disease (AD), stroke, influenza, pneumonia, and cancer. While the top cause of death for men at the time was also heart disease, it was then followed by cancer, influenza, pneumnia, stroke and AD. 

"People who are physically fit enough to survive over 100 years ultimately succumb to diseases afflicting the mind and cognitive dysfunction... in other words, it appears that their minds give out before their bodies do," said geriatrics professor Holly Prigerson, via LiveScience regarding the dangers of AD. 

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