It is well known that the proper functioning of our body depends on two types of factors: internal and external, or, in other words, genetics and environment. Most diseases are influenced, in varying percentages, by both components. Even the way we age depends as much on what we inherit as on what we do.

The Catalan supergrandmother She never smoked or drank alcohol. She didn't diet either, but she survived two wars and an exile, with the nutritional deficiencies that this entails. In 117 years, Maria Branyas from Olotina never became seriously ill, and not even COVID-19 caused any symptoms. Before she died in August 2024, she learned that her cells were a decade younger than her birth date. The person who was the longest-lived in the world She knew she was special in the eyes of the scientific community and agreed to be studied by Manel Esteller, head of the cancer epigenetics group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC), and Eloy Santos, a researcher in aging and cancer epigenetics at the center itself. It was a mystery to everyone why this woman had such an extreme life expectancy and, furthermore, with a good quality of life and good health.

What is the secret to a long and healthy life? Catalan supercentenarian grandmother Maria Branyas, who until passed away last August She was the longest-lived person in the world, she had it clear: "order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, not having worries, regret, being positive and staying away from toxic people."

Maria Branyas, who died a year ago at the age of 117 in the Olot residence where she had lived for two decades, being then the oldest person in the world, she was fortunate to inherit a privileged genome that, according to researchers, made her cells "feel" and "behave" like younger cells, with a biological age of about seventeen years less. She also had a microbiota typical of a child. This is the conclusion of the study led by Manel Esteller, head of the Epigenetics Group of the Josep Carreras Institute, professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona and the world's leading authority on epigenetics and the study of aging and cancer. Numerous research teams of great international prestige have participated, the vast majority of them Catalan, and it is the most exhaustive and complete research ever carried out on a supercentenarian (those who live more than 100 years). The results, which the ARA has accessed for the first time, are revealing.