For the past 30 years, we've focused on a lot of different things.
在过去的30年里,我们已经集中了大量大的各类情况。
We look and see if there's a family history of longevity,
我们观察并注意到了是否有家族长寿史,
past medical history of all of the people in their... in their network -
在他们的家族里所有人的医学档案,
their parents, their... their brothers and sisters, their children.
他们的父母,他们的……他们的兄弟姐妹,他们的孩子。
Year after year, this research has revealed a remarkable fact -
年复一年,研究揭示了一个十分突出的事实,
the Okinawans actually age more slowly than almost anyone else on earth.
冲绳人的实际年龄要比世界上几乎所有地方都慢得多。
The calendar may say they're 75 or 80, but their body says they're 50,
从历法上说他们可能是75或80岁,但他们的身体才50岁,
and the most impressive part of it is that a good lot of them are healthy until the very end.
印象最深刻的是,他们好多人直到生命最后一刻都非常健康。
Over 70% of Okinawan centenarians are still functioning independently at age 97.
超过七成的冲绳百岁老人在97岁时,仍能自己行动。
That's 97% of their life has been healthy.
他们人生中的97%的光阴一直是健康的。
But finding the cause of their exceptional longevity has not been simple.
但是要找出他们长寿的特殊原因并不那么简单了。
Thousands of tests have been run in an attempt to unlock the Okinawan secret.
已经做过了数千次测试,企图解开冲绳的秘密。
In the last few years, the first answers have begun to emerge.
在最近的几年里,第一个答案开始呈现。
The spotlight has fallen on one particular hormone, known as DHEA.
目光集中到了一个特殊的荷尔蒙上, 叫做青春素(DHEA)。
DHEA, it's a precursor of both oestrogen and testosterone.
DHEA,是雌激素和睾酮两者的前辈。
It's produced in the adrenal glands.
它是肾上腺里产生的。
We don't know exactly what it does - nobody knows exactly what it does -
我们不十分清楚它是做什么的,没人十分清楚它是做什么的,
but we do know that DHEA as a hormone drops with age.
但是我们知道DHEA是降低年龄的荷尔蒙。