More Americans Living Over 100 - What's The Secret?

The number of Americans living up to or over 100 years old is growing, per a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the study titled "Mortality Among Centenarians in the United States, 2000─2014," the death rate of centenarians has significantly decreased by 43.6 percent after the turn of the century. The researchers used the mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System from 50 U.S. States as well as data from the District of Columbia.

Key findings showed that from 2000 to 2008, the death rate of people living over 100 years old increased and then surged down until 2014. In 2000, American centenarians were only 50,281 rose up tp 72,197 in 2014.

Meanwhile, death rates of centenarians among the Hispanic population from 2000 to 2006 and the non-Hispanic white and black population from 2000 to 2008. After which, the death rates among all ethnic and racial populations slimmed until 2014.

The study's author, Jiaquan Xu, said per a report from Reuters, "People are more aware of their health, of the importance of staying active and eating healthy food."

Xu also projected that because there's a steady increase in the number of centenarians, in 35 years, there will be approximately 387,000 people living their 100th birthday in the U.S.

Dr. Maria Torroella Carney, chief of geriatric and palliative medicine at Northwell Health, told CBS News, "It's really a sign of continued increase in life expectancy and longevity and a sign of public health efforts and modern medicine over the last two centuries that have contributed to this."

Carney told the news outlet that unlike 1900s, where the average age for mortality is 40, the average life expectancy in the 21st century grew to 70 due to medical development and efforts to sanitation and clean water.

"In the 1900s, we had sanitation and clean water efforts that really helped. Prevention of maternal death and child maternal injuries and accidents, too. The development of vaccinations and antibiotics in that century really decreased mortality," Carney explained. "Then in 2000, vaccines grew more: zoster vaccines [for shingles], influenza and the expansion of use of the use influenza vaccines, pneumonia vaccines."

Meanwhile, the CDC report that the usual cause of death among U.S. centenarians are Alzheimer's disease, stroke, cancer, influenza, pneumonia and heart disease. There was also an alarming 119 percent increase in the number of centenarians dying from Alzheimer's disease.

This increase, according to Carney per CBS News is "troubling."

She said, "While people are living longer and surviving other illnesses, they're seemingly dying of Alzheimer's and dementia. So it makes me question, how is this population living? They may be living longer but are they living well? We don't know that from this study."