She lived to 117 — the oldest verified age ever recorded — and her body told two completely different stories at once. Maria Branyas had the telltale signs of extreme aging: razor-thin telomeres and an inflamed immune system. But she also carried something rare: low inflammation, a gut brimming with beneficial bacteria, and cells that were biologically younger than her 117 years. Because she never developed a major disease, researchers led by Dr. Manel Esteller at the @CarrerasIJC (Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute) could finally study aging on its own, without illness clouding the picture — the most detailed biological deep-dive ever done on a supercentenarian. Their conclusion, published in Cell Reports Medicine: extreme longevity might not mean dodging aging altogether, but surviving it while holding onto the right protective traits. Curious what those traits were? Read the full study here: sciencedaily.com/releases/20… #Longevity #AgingResearch #Geroscience #Epigenetics