Transcripts For KPIX 60 Minutes 20140901

Six miles. Stahl . Are now the Fastest Growing segment of the u. S. Population. I am flying all over the place. Stahl and tonight, you will hear about groundbreaking research that may help us understand how to live a longer, healthier and happier life. Fascinating findings about dementia, the benefits of weight gain as we age, the effects of vitamins, coffee and. What about alcohol . Oh, alcohol made a difference. Moderate alcohol is associated with living longer than individuals who did not consume alcohol. Stahl and after you pour another martini, you may want to check your gym membership. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im morley safer. Im bob simon. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Ro ro simon the largest, most hh g kelloggs raisin bran ® good morning dad. Hi, sweetie. Heres another eye opener, not only is kelloggs raisin bran ® heart healthy, but its a delicious source of potassium. Mom make you eat that . I happen to like raisins. 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Simon the largest, most successful gang of diamond thieves in the world is credited with over 370 heists worth 500 million, and its getting bigger and more daring every year. The gang is composed of networks of teams who Work Together, in europe mostly. But they have done jobs in 35 countries as far afield as tokyo and dubai. They are exyugoslavs; many fought in the Serbian Special forces during the bosnian wars. They are called the pink panthers, and thats not a joke. They got their name from those famous Peter Sellers movies of the 70s and 80s, but as you can well imagine, there are scores of jewelers and cops in many countries who do not find them funny at all. As we first reported in march, their exploits have become the stuff of legend, but what they did in dubai a few years ago shocked even the Police Officers whod been after them for years. Security camera footage captured the scene at the upscale wafi mall. They drove right into the mall in two audis, crashed the cars into the doors of the Graff Jewelry store. Then, men in commando gear jumped out, ran into the shop, seemed perfectly relaxed as they broke into glass cases and bagged diamonds worth 3. 5 million. Then, they got back in their cars and just drove away. How did you react when you heard about the dubai heist . I mean, it was pretty brazen wasnt it . Ron noble i had to see the video to believe that they actually drove two cars through the mall, and then to do all that in less than 45 seconds. Yeah, it was. It was hard to believe. But it happened. Simon thats the worlds chief cop who found it hard to believe. Ron noble is secretary general of interpol, the Global Police organization based in lyon, france. Noble id say that they are the most notorious organized crime group that ive been involved in investigating in my life. Simon so, theyre really good . Noble the problem is that theyve become legendary because they are so good in their planning and their execution of robberies. Simon legendary, in part, because of their name. Remember this scene from that hilarious Peter Sellers comedy where the thief hides the diamond in a jar of cold cream . Well, these professional thieves did exactly the same thing after they hit a highend Jewelry Store in london in 2003, making off with 40 million in diamonds. Thats how they became known as the pink panthers. Incidentally, it was the largest jewel heist in british history. Then, tokyo men wearing wigs entered luxury shops, immobilized clerks with pepper spray, and made off with diamonds, a tiara, and the comtesse de vendome necklace worth 30 million. Copenhagen 2007 a Jewelry Store inside a hotel. In front of stunned guests, three men raced through the lobby and into the store. They smashed glass cases and made off with more than a Million Dollars worth of stones. In the last 20 years, they have been responsible for a half a billion dollars in robberies. In all that time, theres been one fatality. What makes the panthers so successful, noble says, is how they do weeks of surveillance and preparation before an attack. These undercover shots show a team taking the measure of a target before a hit. Noble the m. O. Of the pink panthers is very clear they tend to use a woman to case the Jewelry Stores first. Simon an attractive woman. Noble attractive woman, woman wearing expensive clothing, woman wearing expensive jewelry. Simon a wellheeled man enters next, blocks the door open with his foot, and clears the path for the smashandgrab men four people all together. Precise timing and wellplanned getaways are their trademark. Noble from the time they enter the door until they break all the glass in the cases, take the jewelry, and are out in less than 30 seconds. And then, they have a getaway plan. Within a matter of hours, theyre in another country. Thats their classic m. O. , if you will. Simon if the mafia grew out of sicily, the pink panthers are a product of montenegro and serbia, the now independent republics in what was once yugoslavia. They were allies in the brutal bosnian wars against the muslims. When u. N. Sanctions halted the flow of products into the country, groups of soldiers became professional smugglers. Did many of them have paramilitary training . Noble the core were fighters during the war paramilitary training, very organized, very disciplined and ruthless. And those were the ones who started it back in 94, 95, 96. Simon so they learned their trade in the war . Andrea scholz yes, yes. They grown up with aggression. They know, if you want to have success in you life, you have to use force, and for them, its common. Simon Andrea Scholz is a Risk Prevention consultant in germany who has been investigating the gang for ten years. So the distinctive thing about pink panthers from robbers in other countries is that, since theyre so experienced in war, they are not afraid . Scholz they are not afraid, absolutely. Simon to date, interpol has identified 800 core pink panthers using photos, fingerprints, and dna. They are notorious for using fake passports, which makes them very hard to catch. Noble says, unlike the mafia, they have no chain of command. Noble theyve got networks, and depending on the robbery, theres someone who organizes a particular robbery, but there are no kingpins. Theres no al capone or john gotti at the top of the organized crime groups like classic or traditional organized crime. Simon they have specialists in everything, from alarms to safecracking to stealing cars, and those experts are not hard to find. Do they have connections in every country . Jan glassey in europe, in quite every country, you have the balkan community, so they have the possibility to have a connection. In switzerland, we know that, and its the same in france, in germany, in sweden, in denmark. Simon swiss detective jan glassey says geneva is one of their favorite cities because its so rich. Its where billionaires come to shop and play. So they went into this store . Glassey they went inside this store. Simon and if they get. If they only get 15 watches, theyve made like a million bucks. Glassey yeah. Simon . In 50 seconds. Glassey yeah, exactly. Simon this team, wearing wigs and sunglasses, robbed a luxury store on the rue de rhone, the street in geneva. They grabbed 4 million worth of diamonds and made their getaway in motorcycles down a street which was too narrow for police cars. So its almost a sport between you and them, isnt it . Glassey it is. It is always a bit like that. I mean, they are always a step before us because they are changing the modus operandi. And yes, its a little bit a cat and mouse game. Simon they are professionals. Glassey they are really, really professional. Simon there is no way for you to get there in time. Glassey no, no, no. For the cops, it is very difficult. Normally, we can say between three and five minutes. Simon and by that time, they are in france. Glassey at that time, they are on the way to france. Simon a james bond blockbuster could be made out of what they did in st. Tropez. The roads get clogged in the summer. So, after posing as tourists and scoring more than 3 million worth of jewelry, the panthers made their getaway by sea. And when you hear that they got out of st. Tropez in speed boats, are you thinking, thats pretty good . Glassey i really. All the cops are thinking that, thats pretty good, but now we have a lot of job to do. laughs simon we drove to the seaside town of ulcinj, montenegro, to meet a semi retired pink panther who has been associated with that job. He calls himself filip. He agreed to talk to us at a rented apartment in a secret location. We had to turn off our Electronic Devices before he appeared, and we agreed not to show his face. How many jobs have you done . Filip nine. Simon nine. What was your best robbery . Filip my best robbery . Okay, my best robbery was in france. My best robbery, it was very speedy. Simon very speedy. Filip yeah, very speedy, like speedy gonzalez. laughs it was good money and nobody hurt. Simon you get a couple of Million Euros in france, and then how did you get them someplace where you could get money . Filip i have connection everywhere. If i say everywhere, i mean everywhere. We go to belgium, we have friends. Simon when they go to belgium, they always drop in on antwerp, where gems worth billions are traded every day, patrick peys we know that a lot of diamonds come to antwerp stolen diamonds, stolen jewelry. Why do they come to antwerp . Because the diamond trade is here in antwerp. Simon patrick peys is chief inspector of the antwerp diamond squad. Peys if you compare their volume and their value, the best products in the world, of course. Thats why diamonds are so much used in other criminal acts. Simon making matters worse for cops, only the most expensive diamonds have laser inscriptions with identifying numbers. And even then, large diamonds can be recut, making it impossible to tell whether or not theyve been stolen. So from what youre saying, being a diamond thief isnt a bad career. laughs you make a lot of money, and the odds are with you that youre not going to get caught. Peys i wouldnt advise anybody to start that career, but yes, i can imagine that, from their view that, yeah, its a living. Its a way of living, and the possibilities of getting caught are probably not that high. Simon and recently, we learned the pink panthers have started branching out. We know them as jewelry thieves. Are they expanding their operations . Noble theyre expanding their operations into art, and very, very fine art. Simon in 2008, a group of armed and masked panthers hit this museum in zurich, making off with a monet, a van gogh, a degas and a cezanne. It was the largest art robbery in european history. The last of the paintings was recovered in april 2012 in a dramatic raid captured on videotape. A serbian swat team stormed this house to arrest the men accused of snatching the impressionist works. The cops took a van in for examination and found something hidden in the ceiling. When they pulled it out, they discovered it was cezannes boy in the red vest estimated value, 113 million. But nailing a couple of panthers doesnt help the Police Nearly as much as they would like it to. If one of these guys gets caught, will he squeal . Will he give evidence about the other people, his partners . Glassey no, there is an omerta between them. Simon the omerta really works. Glassey the omerta really works, and when we are speaking of the best teams, a lot of them are really friends. That means they grew up together. Simon still, since 2007, hundreds of arrests have been made, but those panthers just keep on reproducing. And we understand there are approximately 180 new members in the last couple of years . Noble yes, so the next generation is being recruited. Simon and trained, presumably . Noble recruited and trained. Simon their daring has inspired legions of copycats. Disguising themselves as women in burkas, these Thieves Robbed a Jewelry Store in a mall in bahrain. And this gang took to their motorcycles to rob a Jewelry Store in london. Noble the copycats are really just organized crime groups that have identified an easy way to make money based on the celebrity status, i would say, in large part, of the pink panthers. Simon and the police admit that, unfortunately, they themselves didnt help matters when they started calling the gang pink panthers. Noble the problem with this group is that the name pink panthers, it engenders inside us the first memory is the movie. We smile at the name of pink panthers. Simon and heres why. Does your dog bite . No. I thought you said your dog did not bite that is not my dog simon and indeed, the first thing you think of when you hear pink panthers is comedy. Noble thats why we try to highlight, whenever we can, the way in which they perpetrate these robberies. These are not nice guys. These are not nice guys who are stealing from the rich to give to the poor. These are just coldblooded and ruthless and notorious thieves. Cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial. Calling all chief life officers. Glor good evening. The city of detroits bankruptcy trial, the largest municipal bankruptcy in u. S. History, starts on tuesday. Atlantic city lost two casinos and 5,000 jobs in just the past three days. And the chinese Online Retail giant ali baba is reportedly set to hold its ipo next week. 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Since the start of the 20th century, we have increased Life Expectancy in this country by a remarkable 30 years from just 49 in 1900 to almost 79 today. And more and more of us are making it into that group we all hope, and kind of dread, joining, the over90 crowd, affectionately dubbed the oldest old. As we first reported this spring, men and women above the age of 90 are now the Fastest Growing segment of the u. S. Population. Yet very little is known about the oldest old, since, until recently, there were so few of them. So what determines which of us will make it past age 90 . What kind of shape well be in if we do . And what can we do to up our odds . Finding out is the goal of a groundbreaking Research Study known as 90plus. Jane whistler i was born on april 21, 1914. Ted rosenbaum my birthday is february 7, 1918. Lou tirado i was born on august 25, 1920, and im 93 plus. Ruthy stahl june 15, 1918, and it was, im sure, a lovely day. Stahl do you feel 95 . What do you. What age do you feel . Ruthy stahl i feel about 52. laughs not really. Stahl what they have in common, other than having lived a combined total of almost 400 years, is that, decades ago, they all lived in a Retirement Community called Leisure World 45 miles south of los angeles. Hi, there, and welcome to Leisure World, a new way of life designed for alert and active people 52 years or older who want to get the most out of life. Stahl today, its still a Retirement Community, and theyre still getting the most out of life, though its no longer called Leisure World. Its now its own city, laguna woods. Claudia kawas they didnt like the words Leisure World. laughs they consider themselves active. Stahl active world. Kawas active world. Stahl dr. Claudia kawas spends a lot of time in laguna woods these days. Shes a neurologist and professor at nearby u. C. Irvine, who discovered the research equivalent of gold here information gathered from thousands of Leisure World residents back in 1981, with page after page of data about their diet, exercise, vitamins, and activities. Kawas 14,000 people answered this questionnaire in 1981. Stahl 14,000. Kawas many of them, if they were still alive, would now be over the age of 90. Stahl she saw a rare opportunity to study what worked and what didnt. So you. Did you try to find them . Kawas we went after all 14,000. And if they were still alive, we wanted to find where they were. Stahl with 6 million of funding from the National Institutes of health, kawas and her team set out to find out who had died, when they died, and to convince those who were still living and over 90 to sign up. Kawas and youre how old now . Whistler ill be 100 in three months. Kawas were going to have to have a party. Whistler good laughs i love a party. Stahl Jane Whistler is one of the more than 1,600 men and women they found and enrolled as subjects in the 90plus study. They are checked from top to bottom every six months their facial muscles. Reflexes. Balance. How they walk. How fast they can stand up and sit down. And most importantly, how their minds are working. Im going to say and show you three words for you to remember. Shirt. Brown. Honesty. Whistler shirt. Brown. Honesty. Perfect. Now, please spell world. Stahl they are given an hourlong battery of cognitive and memory tests. Good. Now, spell world backwards. Whistler dlrow. Stahl . Asked to connect letters and numbers. There you go. Stahl . And to remember. All right. What three words did i ask you to remember earlier . Whistler brown. Shirt. You want a little hint . Whistler yeah. Okay. Was that word honesty, charity. Whistler honesty. Yes. Stahl when its time for your exams in the 90plus study, do you look forward to it or. Whistler sure. Stahl do you ever say, oh, theyre going to find something or, im not going to be able to do as well as i did last time . Whistler oh yeah, i think that. Sure. Stahl you do. Whistler but that doesnt stop me. I think its. I think its fun. Tirado shirt, brown, honesty. Stahl we were struck by what great shape many of the study participants are in, like lou tirado, a world war ii b17 gunner who was shot down near berlin and spent eight months as a german p. O. W. And sid shero, another world war ii veteran, who came to talk to us despite having suffered a stroke just a few weeks earlier that slurred his speech. Sid shero i am 92 years old and going strong. Stahl sid drives his car to his test sessions. You drive a convertible . Shero yes. Stahl you want the girls to look at you. Shero they call it a chick car. Stahl sid, a widower, works out at the fitness center, keeps up with the news, and the ladies. So, youre a bachelor. Shero yes. Stahl do you date . Shero yes. Stahl do you have a rich social life . Shero yes. Stahl is it fun . Shero yes. Very much so. And i hope to last a long time. Stahl but, of course, not everyone is so lucky. When participants like louise bigelow, age 97, are too frail to come in for testing, the testers go to them. An orange and a banana are alike because theyre both. Louise bigelow yellow. Stahl louise remembers events from long ago, like when her bridal veil caught fire a few minutes after this photo was taken. Bigelow it went right into the flames of the candles. So i always had a lot of excitement all the time. laughter and that was the beginning. Stahl youre not going to forget that ever. Bigelow no. Stahl but when it comes to recent memories and thinking skills, she struggles more and more. And in what way are laughing and crying alike . Bigelow ugh. I dont know. Ruthy stahl brown, honesty, and, uh. Shirt. Stahl the testers go to 95 yearold ruthy stahls home, too. They go not because she cant come to them. She just doesnt have time. Ruthy stahl im in my car more than im in the house, i think, because i. I do so many things. Stahl what do you do . Ruthy stahl i am flying all over the place. Stahl flying, as in speed walking three miles almost every day. Ruthy stahl on sunday, its only two miles. laughs stahl are you on the computer . Ruthy stahl yes, i am. But im having trouble with my computer. Whistler i had a computer for ten years and enjoyed it, but it died. Stahl jane outlived her computer. At almost 100, shes done a lot of outliving. Whistler we were all bridge players. Wed play bridge and have dinner, and we had a lot of fun. Stahl have some of them died . Whistler theyve all died. Stahl theyve all died. Whistler every one. Stahl oh, my goodness. Whistler im the only one left. Stahl so what was it that got these people into their 90s. Kawas so youve never had a stroke. Whistler no. Stahl . While their spouses, friends, and colleagues. Kawas never had hardly anything. Stahl . Dropped out along the way . Kawas whats your secret . Whistler i wish i knew. Stahl genes clearly contribute to longevity, says kawas, but they arent everything. Jane whistlers parents both died when she was young. Kawas well, whatever your secrets are, by being in the study, were going to try to find them out. Stahl so you can go back and look at their medical history . Kawas everybody in the study filled out that questionnaire in the early 1980s. Stahl and comparing that data to how its all turned out has yielded a slew of published findings about behaviors associated with living longer. So, whats the verdict . No surprise smokers died earlier than nonsmokers. And what about exercise . Kawas people who exercised definitely lived longer than people who didnt exercise. As little as 15 minutes a day, on average, made a difference. 45 was the best. Even three hours didnt beat 45 minutes a day. Stahl oh, wow. Thats interesting. Kawas and it didnt all have to be at once. It could be, for example, 15 minutes of walking, and then later in the day, gardening or something. And it also didnt have to be very intense exercise. Stahl and nonphysical activities book clubs, socializing with friends, board games all good. Kawas for every hour you spent doing activities in 1981, you increased your longevity, and the benefit of those things never leveled off. Stahl the subjects we spoke to had definitely been active, but they didnt strike us as having lived their lives worrying about their health. Whistler im not a big vitamin person. Stahl have you watched, over the years, what you ate . Tirado not. Not really. Stahl dessert . Whistler sure. I love dessert. Ruthy stahl i always had a glass of wine before dinner. And now, i still do, but i cant quite finish it. Stahl clean living, huh . Shero no. Stahl no . Not clean living. Shero i dont know what clean living is. Stahl what about alcohol . Whistler sure, i love wine. Stahl do you take vitamins . Shero yes. A lot of them. Stahl so, which vitamins helped . Antioxidants . Okay, vitamin e. We. Were sitting at the edge of our chairs. Did it make a difference, vitamin e . Kawas it wasmy favorite, but uhuh. Stahl no . Kawas people who took vitamin e didnt live any longer than people who didnt take vitamin e. Stahl they also looked at vitamin a, c, and calcium. Kawas the short answer is none of them made a difference. Stahl none of them made a difference to living a long life . Kawas . In terms of how long you live. Stahl what about alcohol . Kawas oh, alcohol made a difference. Stahl but it may not be what you think. Kawas moderate alcohol was associated with living longer than individuals who did not consume alcohol. Stahl wait a minute moderate alcohol, you live longer . Kawas yes. Stahl up to two drinks a day led to a 10 to 15 reduced risk of death compared to non drinkers. Whistler isnt that exciting . laughter stahl and any kind of alcohol seemed to do the trick. Kawas a lot of people like to say its only red wine. In our hands, it didnt seem to matter. Stahl martinis just as good. Kawas yeah. Stahl and theres good news for coffee drinkers. Caffeine intake equivalent to one to three cups of coffee a day was better than more or none. And if youre concerned about those bulging waistlines, listen to this. Kawas it turns out that the best thing to do as you age is to at least maintain or even gain weight. Stahl gain weight . Kawas uhhuh, really. Stahl so being a little overweight is. Is good . Kawas being obese is never good. Stahl and being overweight as a young person wasnt good, either. But late in life, they found people who were overweight or average weight both outlived people who were underweight. Kawas its not good to be skinny when youre old. Stahl but living a long time, even if we dont have to watch our waistlines, isnt the only thing most of us care about. We want to be all there to enjoy it. And its in the areas of alzheimers and dementia that the 90plus study is generating some of its most provocative and surprising findings. Well tell you about that, and one more thing romance after 90. Hows your sex life . laughter you brought it up . When we come back. And now a cbs sports update presented by pacific life. Im adam zuker with results from the u. S. Open. Caroline wozniacki defeating Maria Sharapova in three sets. Four of the top five womens seeds have now been eliminated. Wozniacki will fairs sarah arani in the quarterfinals. The four seed david ferrer was knocked out in four sets. The winner will face maren cilic. For more sports news, go to cbssports. Com. For more than 145 years, pacific life has been helping families achieve lifelong Financial Security with innovative tools and strategies. Talk to a Financial Advisor to protect your family and plan today. Pacific life. The power to help you succeed. Ooooohh what it is, what you want . Yeah. Live your life right make the beat the bump the undeniable come into the party in a bboy stance i rock on the mic and make the world wanna dance fly like a dove that come from up above im rocking on the mic and you can call me mos love ooooohh yeah yeah. Yeah yeah. ,,,, stahl we are a nation getting older. By the middle of the century, the number of americans age 90 and above is projected to quadruple. While thats good news for those of us who want to stick around, it also means more time, literally, to start to lose our minds. Dementia, including that most dreaded form, alzheimers disease, is a looming threat, and a primary focus of the 90 plus study. Participants are asked to donate their brains to the study after they die, so researchers can compare what they saw in life to the secrets buried deep within. And the picture isnt always matching up, bringing new discoveries and new questions about what may actually be causing dementia in the oldest old, and what we may be able to do about it. You know, i think that it was common belief that if you got to 90 and you didnt have dementia or alzheimers, that you werent going to get it. Kawas unfortunately, no. I really, really expected to find that. But in our study, thats not to happen. Stahl its not true. Kawas no. Stahl it turns out the risk of developing dementia doubles every five years, starting at the age of 65, and it keeps right on doubling. And given the growth in numbers of the oldest old by mid century. Kawas we are going to have more people with dementia over the age of 90 than we currently have at all ages put together. Stahl and were not even thinking about it. Kawas we should be. Stahl as charming and engaging as all the 90plusers we met were, one who we were particularly moved by was 96 yearold ted rosenbaum, a former American History teacher whos been married for 63 years. Ted rosenbaum i was very lucky. So now, at this stage of the game, if its petering out, just reminiscing about our past is a source of incalculable joy. An orange and a banana are alike because theyre both. . Rosenbaum fruits. Stahl ted did well on parts of the 90plus exam, like repeating long strings of numbers backwards. Six, one, eight, four, three. Rosenbaum three, four, eight, one, six. Stahl but when it came time to remember the three words she had told him just 40 seconds earlier. Rosenbaum three words. Give me a hint. Stahl . He was lost. And that wasnt his only problem. What is todays date . Rosenbaum todays date . Uhhuh. Rosenbaum todays date . Stahl does he have dementia, at this point . Kawas yes. Ted has dementia. Stahl he does. Kawas you know, unfortunately theres no blood test, theres no xray. Its an examiner finding out that an individual has problems in two or more of the main things the brain does for them. So thats where he is. Stahl and whats perhaps the most devastating is he knows it. Rosenbaum my worst condition is my memory. Stahl when you cant remember something, what goes on inside you . Rosenbaum terrible frustration and terrible. You know, its. Its having more and more of a negative impact on me, psychologically. Stahl determining whats behind his memory loss isnt easy, since diseases like alzheimers can only be definitively diagnosed in the brain after death. So its after the 90plusers die that a new round of sleuthing begins. When subjects in the study donate their brains, they come here to neuropathologist dr. Ronald kim. He showed us one of the things he always looks for, the plaques and tangles in the brain that are the telltale signs of alzheimers disease. Ronald kim it forms all of these plaques. Stahl all these brown spots are plaques . Kim yes. Are plaques, thats correct. And in an individual like this, i would expect the patient to be demented. Do you read newspapers every day . Loring bigelow yes, i read them in the evening. Stahl Loring Bigelow spent five years in the study. He passed away last summer, and while dr. Kim studies his brain, the rest of the 90plus team independently reviews years of his test results and videos to assess whether he had developed dementia, and if so, from what . While early on, his scores were strong. Who is our president . Loring bigelow obama. Stahl over the years, there was a gradual but unmistakable decline. Hed pick up a newspaper he had just finished, use the tv remote to try and make a phone call. Do you know who is the president . Loring bigelow i want to say herbert hoover. laughs i cant think of it. Could not remember his age, anxious. Stahl the consensus here was likely alzheimers, which presumes a brain with plaques and tangles. Kawas are we ready to hear the truth . Stahl only then do they open up dr. Kims report. Plaques, zero. So, no plaques. Oh, okay. Ah. Kawas wow no plaques. No cortical tangles anywhere. Kawas pretty amazing. Stahl whats amazing is theyre finding that 40 of the time in people over 90, what doctors would think is alzheimers isnt. In Loring Bigelows brain, dr. Kim found something else, something the 90plus study is finding quite a bit evidence of tiny, microscopic strokes called microinfarcts. His brain was full of them. Kim here is a microinfarct. Its the hole. Stahl oh, right here. Kim . Which is basically a tiny stroke. Kawas so youve got all this tissue is missing. Kim if you find one, it suggests that you should probably look for others. And some patients may have hundreds or thousands of them. Stahl these microscopic strokes are insidious because people dont even know theyre having them. Kim they can be totally silent. And slowly but surely, over time, youre picking off. Youre disconnecting your cortex from the rest of the brain, and then you start to become demented. It can look just like alzheimers disease, clinically. Stahl do you know anything we can do to prevent these mini strokes . Kawas i wish i did. But i will soon, i hope. Stahl kawas suspects one thing that may cause them is low Blood Pressure, and she has some evidence. While none of the factors from the original Leisure World study vitamins, alcohol, caffeine, even exercise seemed to lower peoples risk of getting dementia, the 90plus study discovered that high Blood Pressure did. Kawas if you have high Blood Pressure, it looks like your risk of dementia is lower than if you dont have high Blood Pressure. Stahl lower . Wait high Blood Pressure, lower risk of dementia . Kawas in a 90yearold. Stahl high Blood Pressure is still dangerous if youre younger, yet another reason she says its so important to study the oldest old. Kawas most of what we know, we study in much younger individuals in 50, 60, maybe 70yearolds. And then, we just kind of assume that the same thing should happen in older people. Stahl and youre saying we shouldnt . Kawas i think we shouldnt. Stahl take this next counterintuitive finding this time, in the 90 plus subjects who have no dementia. Kawas were finding out that if you die without dementia in this age group, about half the time, you still have plaques and tangles in your head. Stahl no . So you can exhibit alzheimers and not have plaques and tangles half the time, and the reverse. Kawas both directions. Stahl . Youre fine and you do have plaques and tangles . So what do you make of that . Kawas i mean, one possibility is that plaques and tangles have nothing to do with it. But it might be that plaques and tangles are very, very important, but just a 90year old who has them and didnt develop thinking problems has some way of getting around them that maybe all the rest of us would like to know. Stahl so now, theyre looking at people with no signs of dementia like ruthy stahl, lou tirado, sid shero, and Jane Whistler to see if they have plaques and tangles, but are not affected by them. Theres a new type of p. E. T. Scan that, for the first time, makes it possible to find plaques during life, so the 90 plus study is engaged in the delicate task of putting 99 yearolds like Jane Whistler into scanners. Sid shero, at 92, hopped right in. Kawas jane and sid both have very, very, very good thinking, as you saw. Stahl yes, definitely. Kawas and it turns out that one of their scans is positive and one is negative. Stahl she showed them to us one on top of the other. Yellow and red indicate the presence of amyloid plaque. Kawas so this is miss whistler, and this is mr. Shero. Stahl well, im surprised, having talked to him, that im seeing yellow and red here. Kind of stunning. So, what does that mean for sid . The positive scan means, statistically, hes at greater risk of cognitive decline, but dr. Kawas says the fact hes doing so well, in spite of the plaque in his brain and his stroke, means he may have that something protective and special that could help the rest of us. She says theyll be keeping a close watch on him. If its unclear that the pathology hooks up with what youre seeing, what does that mean, in your mind . Kawas i think were looking for too simple an answer. I think we want one thing to explain alzheimers. Look at something different, like what makes skin wrinkle. Well, i mean, getting older makes skin wrinkle, being in the sun too much makes skin wrinkle, not taking care of your diet. And you put them all together and they all contribute. And i think it might turn out to be the same for our thinking, especially in late life, that its not just alzheimers pathology from plaques, or not just microinfarcts, but the number of these hits that you take. And after a while you cant withstand them all. Stahl theres one last thing we wondered about in the over90 crowd, and thats romance. Helen weil, 92, and henry tornell, 94, both widowed, have been dating for three years. So, do you see each other every day, several times every day, once a day . How does it work . Henry tornell she gets one day off a week. Helen weil laughs its true tuesdays. Stahl tuesdays is a day off. Weil its my day off. Stahl helen and henry love being part of the 90plus study, and both have signed up to donate their brains after they die. Henry has only one problem with the whole enterprise what the study hasnt asked about. Tornell i asked them, arent you going to ask us any questions about our sex life . And they said no. Stahl well, i will. Hows your sex life . laughter you brought it up. Weil see, he is funny, you know that. Stahl well, i dont know. I think. Im not laughing. How is your sex life . laughter weil hes blushing. Stahl hes blushing. But is that part of. Do you think that has something to do with. Tornell i would say it has a big part. Stahl helen . Weil we are very. We are very affectionate. Stahl but do you think that sex is an important part of staying young . Tornell yes. Stahl the 90plus study has just gotten another fiveyear round of n. I. H. Funding to delve deeper into risk factors for specific types of dementia, like those microinfarcts, and to search for genes that may be protective, in their continuing search for the secrets of the oldest old. Kawas i really believe that, when we learn things from the 90yearolds, theyre going to be helping the 60 and 70year olds not just how to become 90yearolds, but how to do it with style and as good a function as possible. Stahl well, obviously, youve already started that by telling us that we should have some wine, that we should have some coffee. Kawas and socialize. And exercise. Stahl and gain weight. Kawas and thats my favorite. Stahl my favorite too, absolutely. And maybe a Little Something else save the last dance for me playing weil save the last dance for me. laughs stahl we are happy to report that all the 90plusers in our story are still going strong. Several have celebrated birthdays since our story aired, including Jane Whistler, who had a big one. She is now 100. For unforgettable moments from the lives of 90plusers, go to 60minutesovertime. Com. Sponsored by pfizer. [ female announcer ] hands were made for talking. Feet. Tiptoeing. Better things than the pain, stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Before you and your rheumatologist decide on a biologic, ask if xeljanz is right for you. 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